Darkness Falls II: Devil In The Gateway
by The Silent Scream
Summary: They say the devil never sleeps, but neither does the Slayer as she fights to save her friends from the devil's grasp and, once more, the world from yet another impending apocalypse. Rating for violence and cursing. Willow / OC
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note: And here we go with the continuation of Darkness Falls. I hope I didn't make any of you wait too long, and that the wait has been worth it. :) Enjoy :)

Disclaimer: Buffy: The Vampire Slayer and mentioned characters from the show are not mine, just borrowing them for a while. I promise I'll give 'em back when I'm done.

* * *

Darkness Falls Part II: Devil In The Gateway

"_So, to put this into simpler words", Xander gave back, "Amy's possessed by the Devil now, and she's made Willow and Pat go evil." "Yes, afraid so", Giles sighed in reply, silence filling the room again afterwards – before Buffy spoke up, summing the situation up perfectly, using some rather saucy language no one ever had expected from her. "Long story short – we're fucked."_

The kitchen was as silent as it could be after such gloomy events, the five people sitting around the dinner table just looking at each other; no one knew what to say about what they just had witnessed, and even though their minds were running wild, no one could come up with how this could be solved.

"So what do we do now?" Anya finally broke the silence, shifting on her chair uncomfortably when four pairs of eyes focused on her. "Well, we just can't sit around here and wait for something to happen", she added, even though she didn't have much of an idea what else they could do.

"Can we stop it? Or reverse it?" Buffy was the next one to speak up before the silence could settle over the group again, throwing Giles such a hopeful look that it nearly broke his heart when he had to shrug helplessly and had to watch that hope fade away.

"I'm not sure", he also voiced his insecurity, a dismayed sigh escaping him before he continued. "As I said, Amy… or the Devil inside her, it doesn't make much of a difference… she woke the dark parts of Willow and Pat, and I'm not sure if we can undo this, without Willow's magic."

"And in her current state, she won't be very willing to help", Buffy muttered – before she looked at Anya, new hope filling her eyes as she went on. "But you know how to do magic, too, right? I mean, you did that spell with Willow back then, when you brought her vampire alter ego into our world?"

"That wasn't the intention of the spell, though", Anya pointed out in reply, "and that was a much smaller spell! I don't think I can do such a big thing."

"Maybe Giles and you together?" the Slayer tried, her shoulders slumping when they both gave her an insecure look in reply. "Look, there has to be something we can do", she then almost snapped, rising from her chair so fast she nearly threw it over. "Who knows what Amy wants to do with them! And even if she only wants to use them for her cause, whatever it is, that's bad enough, because you know damn well I can't fight them… Not them."

She stared at the rest for a few more moments, then slumped back on her seat, taking in a deep breath; with a concerned look, Giles placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder and gave it a squeeze, making her look at him again, the Watcher holding her gaze as he spoke up, his voice low, but calming. "We'll figure something out. You know we always do."

After a moment, the Slayer nodded, returning his smile weakly; he patted her shoulder once more, then pulled his hand back, silence filling the room again as they once more tried to figure out how to deal with this unexpected turn of events.

* * *

As the door of the church flew open, Amy sat up on the altar where she had been resting, smiling seductively at the two women standing in the aisle; she gestured at them to come closer, and they did so, making their way to the altar and kneeling down in front of it, the sight making Amy's smile widen.

"Welcome", she greeted, getting up from the altar and standing in front of the two, looking down on them for a few seconds in silent triumph before she crouched as well, making Willow look at her by tilting her head up with two fingers, her smile growing even wider when she saw the darkness which was filling the redhead's eyes.

"This is amazing", she stated after just studying them for a while, coming to her feet again and moving around the two, giggling girlishly to herself as she looked them over. "The great, oh so powerful Willow Rosenberg, now my faithful servant… I knew this would pay off when I made that deal."

She giggled again, then moved back to the altar and sat down on it, dangling her feet as she ran both hands through her hair, for a moment appearing disturbingly like a little girl instead of the twenty-something young adult she was supposed to be.

"You know, now that I got you here, I'm not really sure what to do with you", she stated after a while, smiling to herself again. "I just wanted you around so Buffy would stay outta my way for a while, and give me time to reach my full potential. I bet right now, they are racking their brains trying to figure out how to draw you two guys back on their pathetic good side. Isn't this funny?"

She giggled again, then sighed, lying back down and looking up at the still smoke stained ceiling of the church. "I'm still tired from making you join me", she mumbled, all at once sounding as if she was halfway asleep already, "so let me get some rest… The rest of my… followers… are down in the cellar, go and join them. Make yourself acquainted with them."

"As you wish", Willow and Pat replied in perfect unison, coming to their feet again; together, they made their way to the back of the church where the door leading into the cellar was located while Amy closed her eyes, quickly drifting off into sleep, the small, satisfied smile never leaving her face.

* * *

The moment Giles had hung up the phone, Buffy stood beside him, looking at him with a mixture of curiousness and hope in her eyes; when the Watcher let out a sigh in reply, her face fell, quickly causing him to give her a reassuring smile before he placed a hand on her shoulder.

"So?" the Slayer demanded to know when he didn't speak up immediately, "what did the coven say?"

"They can't channel their energies to me from England, as I feared", he let her know, causing her to make a long face again, "but they already felt the disturbance when Amy's spell took effect, so they've been aware of the danger already when I called them. The one I spoke to will assemble the rest and they'll try to come up with something to help us, until then, we'll just have to be patient… And hope that Amy won't send Willow and Pat after us in the meantime."

With a small sigh, Buffy nodded, knowing that the Watcher was right; still the thought that she for now could only sit around and wait made her angry to the core, and she clenched her fists as she inwardly cursed Amy for the hundredth time.

"How could she do it?" she then asked, more to distract herself from her anger than out of real interest. "It must have taken a lot of strength to do this, so how could she? I thought you said she wasn't strong yet…"

"I'm not really sure", Giles back, sighing to himself again while he made his way to the living room with the Slayer, where Anya, Dawn and Xander were waiting, all of them looking rather gloomy as well. "This is the first time we're dealing with something like this", the elder man went on while he sat down, Buffy doing the same after a moment, holding back the urge to jump up and break something. "So, until the coven comes up with an idea how to help us, we should try to find out if there are ways for her to increase her power quicker, and put a stop to it. Maybe, if we manage to cut off her supply of power, we can break her hold on Willow and Pat easier, as well."

"And how are we supposed to find that out?" Anya demanded to know, frowning at the Watcher. "It's not like we can just walk up to her and ask her, right?"

"No, we can't", Giles sighed, removing his glasses and beginning to clean them, as always when something was bothering or upsetting him. "I'll look into it", he then added, "maybe there'll be some information in one of the books at the Magic Box."

"If you go there, I'm coming with you", Buffy immediately stated, making him look at her in surprise – normally, she avoided research as much as possible. "It'd be just like Amy to send Willow and Pat after us when we're not together, and pick us off one by one", the Slayer clarified, causing Xander and Anya to exchange a look – before they both volunteered to join the research team as well, to the obvious amusement of Giles, despite the seriousness of the whole situation.

"Let's go then", Buffy almost ordered, "we shouldn't waste any time. Dawn, you're coming, too."

"Of course", the teenager agreed at once, not sure if she should be giddy about the fact that Buffy finally was taking her along – or scared because she knew why her sister wouldn't let her stay at home alone.

With determination now on their faces, the rest nodded their approval as well, then all got up and grabbed their jackets; together, they left the house and soon were on the way to the Magic Box, each and every one of them thinking about what had been done to Willow and Pat – and what Amy might have in store for them, all of them hoping that they would be able to figure out a solution for their problem before it might be too late.

* * *

An hour had passed during which the only sound had been the noise created by several people turning the pages of the books in front of them, accompanied by a low thump every now and then when one book was replaced with another one; then, a sigh broke the silence, and they all looked up at the cause of that noise, Buffy holding their gaze as she sighed again.

"Is there even a remote chance we'll find anything?" she demanded to know, once more reminding Giles why he usually didn't insist on her joining the research – her patience just wasn't big enough for that kind of work.

"Yes, of course", he reassured her, "or else we wouldn't be searching. We just need a bit of patience, Buffy."

"Well I don't have patience", the Slayer stated the obvious, snapping her book shut and glaring at the Watcher, the elder man knowing her well enough by now though to figure out that this glare wasn't really caused by anger at him, but at herself, by the feelings of helplessness and uselessness which overcame her whenever she thought of the current situation.

"Two very close friends of mine are under the control of that devil-witch, or whatever she is now", Buffy went on, gnashing her teeth briefly as horrible images of torture unbidden came up in her mind, "and she is doing God knows what to them right now, so I don't see why I should be patient!"

"I sincerely doubt that Amy is harming them", Giles tried to reason, even though he knew it most likely would be in vain – he had seen Buffy in this particular aggravated state a few times already, and it usually ended with the Slayer throwing or smashing something before she could calm down again.

"Probably not", Anya threw in, probably trying to be helpful, but only succeeding with making Buffy's mood even fouler, "she's more likely gonna use them to fight you, so you'll have a hard time fighting back."

"Dammit!" Buffy snapped in reply, stopping her pacing for a moment – before she suddenly swiped one of the books off the table with enough force to send it flying all the way to the stairs close to the door, making the rest of the group jump.

"Buffy, please", Giles muttered, moving over to the book and kneeling down beside it to pick it up, "the books really… oh."

"Oh?" Buffy repeated, her anger puffing away as she suddenly felt curious. "Oh what?"

"Perhaps you should do this more often", Giles gave back while he picked up the book and turned it around so he could read it properly, glancing up the Slayer again afterwards. "This is just the information we wanted."

"Oh", Buffy replied, surprised as well, "I guess that's good then…?"

"More or less", the Watcher sighed out as he finished reading, snapping the book shut before he looked at the blonde again, his voice grave as he spoke on. "If I understand this correctly, she gained the power she needed to get control over Willow and Pat when you were killing those demons she sent to your house."

"So I can't kill demons anymore?" Buffy demanded to know, frowning, crossing her arms over her chest. "This just keeps getting better and better…"

"I'm not sure", the Watcher gave back, frowning as well while he pondered the words in the book. "It's impossible that all demons and vampires here are connected to her that way, not as long as her powers aren't fully developed. It's more likely that she chose those demons, built up the connection and then sent them to you, gaining more energy with every one of them you killed."

"Great", Buffy mumbled, shaking her head to herself, "then how do we know in the future if some demon or vamp isn't under the same spell, or whatever it is?"

"We don't", Giles bluntly replied, not really telling her what she had wanted to hear.

"That is not what I wanted to hear", she let him know, holding back the urge to throw another book, by now calmed down enough to know that the Watcher wouldn't approve, no matter what he had said a few minutes ago. "So every time I kill a demon or a vampire now, I have to worry that she gets stronger?"

"Essentially, yes", Giles sighed, "but all in all, it doesn't make much of a difference, I assume. It doesn't matter if she gains her strength through the death of her minions or simply by waiting, if we don't stop her in time, she'll grow too strong for us either way."

"Why doesn't she just kill off enough demons until she's at her fully loaded state?" Xander threw in, frowning to himself as he pondered his own question. "Wouldn't that make taking over the world and turning it into the Devil's playground much easier?"

"She can't absorb too much power at once, brain leakage, remember?" Anya answered him, making the rest grimace as they thought of brains leaking out of ears; shaking the image out of her mind, Buffy let out a sigh and sat back down, picking up yet another book with the air of someone resigned to several more hours of tiring research.

"Well", she stated as she opened the thick volume, "we better try to find out then if there is a way how to stop her without that spell you wanted Willow to do… And how we can get Willow and Pat back." Nodding, the others focused on their books again as well, silence once more settling over the Magic Box as they tried to find answers to the questions burning on their minds.


	2. Chapter 2

Another three hours later, at least some information had been found, but nothing which would lead to an easy and quick solution; since everyone was close to getting headaches and Giles suspected that, in their current tired state, they all were more likely to miss important points than really finding anything else, the Watcher finally called an end to the research session, holding back to urge to smirk at the obvious relief which immediately showed on Buffy's face.

"You have to get a better coffee machine", she stated as she emptied her fifth – or sixth, she had lost count a while ago – cup of the bitter stuff, shooting Anya a pointed glance; immediately, the ex-demon shook her head, her response not really surprising anyone, but still making the Slayer sigh as it promised more bad coffee during the upcoming research sessions. "Not as long as this one is still working, those things aren't cheap!"

"Actually, nowadays, they are", Buffy pointed out, already secretly plotting to break that nasty coffee machine as soon as she'd have a chance – which probably wouldn't be too long from now, seeing how the Magic Box often ended up being used as fighting arena.

"No new machine as long as this one still works", Anya empathized once more in reply, the Slayer letting out another sigh and shaking her head to herself – before she shrugged it off and grabbed her jacket, making the rest do the same.

"We should still stay together", she renewed the suggestion she had made earlier that day, "just to be on the safe side…"

To her relief, they all agreed with her again, Dawn even trying to see the positive side of things by pointing out that it would be fun to have such a huge sleepover at their house; even though they all knew that they wouldn't have much fun that evening and night, they forced themselves to smile at her and to nod, not wanting to shatter the little bit of good mood she had managed to bring up.

"Let's pick up some food on the way home", Xander suggested as they left the shop together, "I'm quite sure no one of us feels like…"

He trailed off, then fell silent when he saw who stood waiting in front of the store, a well-known, malicious smirk on her face; next to him, the others stopped dead in her tracks as well, all just staring for a moment – until Buffy took a step forward, separating herself from the group just enough to let the woman in front of her notice, her voice firm as she spoke up. "Did Amy send you here?"

"Yes", Willow replied, not really surprising any of her friends, "but no worries, Buffy… She didn't send me here to hurt you. She just wants me to deliver a message…"

"We're listening", the Slayer gave back, fighting hard to keep her calm – it was unsettling to see Willow with those black eyes again, but at least, her hair hadn't gone black again – at least not yet – and her skin hadn't become all veiny once more.

"Stay away from her", the witch coldly gave back, "and let her reach her full potential in peace… Then she'll release Pat and me as soon as she gained her full power and all of us will be allowed to leave in peace."

"She expects me to make a deal with her?" Buffy replied, forcing a sardonic smirk on her face. "A deal with the Devil? No, thanks. You can go back to her and tell her I won't rest until she's back where she belongs, and until her hold over the two of you is broken."

"You'll never stop her", Willow sneered in reply, "she'll get rid of you soon enough, all of you, and then she'll rule the world…"

"It's worth a try", Buffy shrugged in response, amazing the others with her self-control; if it upset her to see her best friend like this, she didn't let it show at all, appearing as cool and calm as she did when she was making snarky remarks towards the vampires she staked night after night.

"You know me", she went on when Willow didn't find an immediate answer to that, "I'm not one to give up easily. And I surely won't give up easily on this, or on getting Pat and you back – you mean too much to me for that."

As if her words had touched something deep within the witch, something Amy hadn't been able to touch when she had gained control over her, the redhead's eyes flashed up green in reply, the sight stunning the Slayer into silence; with an expression of absolute horror on her face, Willow took a staggering step closer to her, her voice trembling when she spoke up again. "Buffy, I can't… She's too strong, please you have to…"

"Willow!" Buffy nearly cried out, her self-control slipping the moment she saw her best friend return to the person she loved so much, "you're strong enough, fight it! Fight her!"

In response, the witch kept looking at her for a few seconds longer, appearing as helpless as never before in her life – then, the blackness returned to her eyes, and she smirked evilly once more, shaking her head.

"Stay out of her way", she then repeated, "and none of you will get harmed. Leaving now…" For a moment, Buffy felt like charging at her and stopping her from leaving, then stopped herself as she remembered the spell Willow had thrown at her the last time she had tried to stop her; thus, she just watched how the witch turned and walked off, her hopes now back up as she had seen that Amy's hold over Willow wasn't as complete as they all had thought.

* * *

"We have to make her agitated", Buffy stated as soon as they had returned to her house and had sat down with the boxes of pizza they had taken along, forcing themselves to eat even though no one of the gang was really hungry. "And show her I don't accept her stupid little deal."

"This might endanger Willow and Pat", Giles pointed out in reply, the Slayer throwing him such a dark look as an answer that he nearly flinched back from her, all of his self-control needed to hold her gaze and not look away before she did.

"You've seen Willow", she replied after a few more seconds of just staring at him, "Amy's control over them isn't as strong as she wanted us to believe… And I want to get them out of there before her strength increases and she does gain full control over them."

"Wait, wait, wait", Xander threw in before the Watcher could reply, "when did the plan change from making Amy agitated to getting them out of there? And how do you want to do that, if she has an army of demons there with her?"

"We'll figure something out", Buffy gave back, confident as always. "Maybe set the church on fire and make them all run outside. Amy herself might be immune to it, being possessed by the Devil and everything, but I doubt all the other demons working for her are."

"I like this idea", Anya quipped, the thought of mindless destruction clearly appealing to her, making the rest worry about her mental state briefly and if maybe, she was still influenced by Amy as well – her level of nastiness had decreased back to more or less normal after the ritual had been finished, but this maybe didn't mean that all influence of the Devil was gone.

"Surprisingly, so do I", Giles now let the others know, causing Buffy to raise an eyebrow at him – she hadn't really expected him to go along with the idea of setting the church on fire, and she hadn't even been fully serious, but merely had said the first thing which had come to her mind.

"There's only a small drawback you might have forgotten", the elder man now went on, throwing the Slayer a look over the rim of his glasses, "namely, even if Amy and Pat are immune to the fire and the smoke, Willow is not."

With a sigh, Buffy had to admit that he was right – then stunned him by shrugging, momentarily making him wonder if whatever had gotten into Anya had affected her as well after all, the blonde to his relief justifying her uncharacteristic carelessness about her best friend's welfare moments later. "She's not, not technically, but with Amy having control over her, I'm quite positive she'll make her use some magic to protect herself. And even if not…"

"Pat will protect her", Dawn finished, making it her elder sister's turn to be surprised, since Buffy had been sure that none of them would follow her train of thought.

"She might", Giles provided the voice of reason, as ever, "but you shouldn't be too convinced of it. If Amy did make her demonic side strong enough so it overpowers her humanity, then she might not care."

"Amy's control over Willow isn't perfect yet, as we saw", Xander pointed out in reply, "so I actually think Dawn has a point. We'd have to act fast though, before she gets too strong."

"Tonight", Buffy immediately decided in reply, glad when no one protested, not even the Watcher. "I don't see why we should wait any longer."

"Me neither", Anya and Dawn quipped in perfect unison, exchanging startled looks afterwards; with a smile, Buffy shook her head, then her face grew serious again as her mind started running wild, the rough outline of a plan which might work slowly starting to form.

* * *

"So", Amy started as she sat up on her altar, looking curiously at the witch kneeling in front of her, "how did it go? Did that silly Slayer accept my offer?"

"No", Willow replied, not really surprising the woman in front of her, but still it was annoying; two steps behind the redhead, Pat smirked as she took another drag of her cigarette, her next words only helping to make Amy even more annoyed than she already was. "Told ya. The Slayer's not one for negotiating."

"I don't remember asking you about your opinion", Amy snapped in reply, throwing the demon an irritated look. "Actually, I also don't remember telling you to come upstairs with Willow. I only asked for her to join me."

"I go where she goes", the black haired woman shrugged in reply, clearly not impressed by the angered look on the possessed woman's face; snarling, Amy held back the urge to throw something after her, telling herself that she needed the demon and her companion at least until she had grown strong enough to deal with the Slayer on her own.

"Insolent lighter on two feet", she snapped, the best insult she could come up with in her aggravated state; clearly amused, Pat raised an eyebrow in reply, then changed the topic, to Amy's dismay not caring much about her try to insult her. "Why don't you just send a bunch of us to the Slayer's house so we can kill her? If our numbers are strong enough, she won't stand a chance. I don't see why we have to sit around here and wait for you to power up."

"Because I'll deal with her myself, once I'm strong enough", Amy snapped in reply, not believing the nerve of this woman. "And how dare you question me? I am your master around here!"

Before the demon had a chance to reply something, several of the windows shattered as flaming bottles were thrown through them; as they hit the benches and the ground, the bottles burst, spilling burning gasoline everywhere, the flames quickly spreading as they found enough wood and carpet to feed on.

"Dammit!" Amy cried as she watched the flames spread helplessly, knowing that she wasn't strong enough yet to stop them with mere willpower, "that pesky Slayer! She's behind that! Stop it!"

With those words, she glared at Pat, the demon raising her hands in reply – and an eyebrow as well, the possessed woman not liking the sardonic expression on her face one bit, the insolent sound of the taller woman's voice not all too likeable either when she replied. "Can't. Controlling fire is not one of my specialities."

"You useless…" Amy started in anger, pressing the two words out between grit teeth; before she could go on though, she was interrupted as the door leading into the church's cellar flew open and a mass of demons and vampires pushed to all get through it at the same time.

"Fire!" several of them shouted, helping with increasing the panic even further, "we're all gonna die!"

"Calm down, you idiots," Amy shouted in reply, groaning when several of her minions stumbled over each other during their tries to all fit through the narrow door at once, "form a line or something! Oh dammit…"

The last words came out as a distraught sigh, caused by the sight of even more demons and vampires falling over the ones already on the ground; in front of her, Willow started to cough as there was more smoke than clear air to breathe by now, the noise being enough to distract Pat from the amusing sight of stumbling and cursing demons and vampires.

"Okay, we're outta here", the demon stated, moving over to the altar and grabbing the witch around the waist, easily pulling her to her feet; glaring at her, Amy shook her head, her voice full of anger again as she snapped at the two. "You are staying right where you are! I need you here!"

"You need Willow nicely toasted?" Pat demanded to know in reply, throwing Amy a glare which briefly made her wonder if maybe, her control spell hadn't worked as well as she had thought; before she could reply, the black haired woman let out a contemptuous snort, then started moving towards the exit of the church, ignoring it when Amy snapped another command to stay after her.

_How can she disobey me so easily? _the young woman fumed as all she could do was watch them leave, knowing that she was still too weak to leave her centre of power and thus couldn't just get up and walk after them; thus, she remained where she was, staring after them angrily as they left together, the door falling close behind them half a minute later.


	3. Chapter 3

It wasn't hard for Buffy and Giles to spot their friends as they came out of the church, relief briefly filling both of them when they saw that Pat had an arm around Willow and was focused fully on her, not even bothering to look around; even if she had done so though, it was highly unlikely that she would have spotted the Slayer and her Watcher, the two well-hidden behind a group of bushes, armed with the tranquilizer guns they had used to subdue Oz during his werewolf phases.

"Not yet", she whispered as she saw Giles raise his gun, "let them come closer…" Hesitatingly, the elder man nodded, clutching his gun tightly; he didn't like the thought of shooting the two, but knew that it was the only way to get them back to Buffy's house without the need to fight them first, something he was even less willing to do.

"Come on", Buffy now whispered next to him, sounding just as anxious as he was feeling, "just a few more steps… Come on…"

To her relief, the couple did her the favour and kept approaching, clearly not sure where to go now; by now, they were close enough to let the two in hiding hear that they were talking, even though they still were too far away to let them hear the actual words they were exchanging.

"Okay, _now_", the Slayer ordered after a few more seconds, the blink of an eye later bringing up her gun; next to her, Giles did the same with a delay of a second or two, both of them firing simultaneously, the small tranquilizer darts finding their targets and making both Pat and Willow yelp with surprise at the small, but highly unexpected pain.

Even though the dose of tranquilizers was much lighter than the stuff they had used on Oz, the effect kicked in quickly; the demon still had the time to remove the dart and stare at it before she collapsed, Willow ending up on the ground beside her a second later. Immediately, Buffy and Giles shot out of their hiding places, using the straps fastened to the tranquilizer guns to sling them over their shoulders while they ran to the knocked out couple, eager to get them before any other demons or vampires could emerge from the burning church; since the Slayer was the stronger one of the two, she grabbed the taller and heavier Pat, Giles taking a firm hold of Willow, the church doors flying open again just as the two turned to run.

"Dammit", Buffy muttered to herself, more annoyed than anything else, "would have been too good to be true if a plan just had worked out for once…"

The sound of screeching tires from the road close to the church distracted her from her annoyance, and quickly, she shrugged it off; nodding at Giles, she started hurrying towards the street, the Watcher close behind her, his breathing quickly turning into pants as he struggled with Willow's dead weight.

"Don't go weak on me now", Buffy snapped at him as she hurried to where Xander and Anya where waiting in the van the young man had borrowed from one of his construction site colleagues, the back doors already opened, the engine running noisily. Rather unceremoniously, Buffy and Giles threw their human load into the back of the car, then hurriedly climbed in themselves, the Slayer pulling the doors close while Xander already stepped on the gas; the van screeched away from the road just before the demons and vampires chasing them could reach them, their angered growls and shouts following them until they slowly faded away in the distance.

* * *

"Are you sure this will hold them?" Giles asked for the twentieth – or possibly thirtieth time, Buffy already had given up on counting; exasperated, she nodded, throwing another satisfied look at the chains which, if she had done everything right, would hold Willow and Pat against the basement wall until Amy's influence would fade away.

"What if Willow opens the lock with her magic?" Xander demanded to know, the Slayer giving him an annoyed look in reply, crossing her arms over her chest as she replied. "Why is everyone here doubting what I'm doing? Do you have a better idea to keep them secured until they're back to normal?"

"…no", Xander had to admit after a moment, the Slayer holding back the urge to shoot him a triumphant glance in response – before she let herself fall into the chair she had readied, at safe distance from the couple, but still close enough so she could reach them within seconds, should it be necessary.

"They should wake up soon", Giles let her know while she made herself comfortable, "should we stay here with you…?"

"No", the blonde declined after thinking about this for a moment, "maybe it'll be better if it's just me here when they wake up again. We don't want them to feel threatened, and that room isn't all too big, so it'd be rather crowded if you'd all stay here."

"We'll wait upstairs then", Giles decided after a moment, figuring that the Slayer had made a good point, "but we'll leave the cellar door open, just in case something unpleasant should happen."

"Fine with me", the Slayer shrugged, even though she wasn't sure if leaving the door open was a good idea – if Willow really would open the locks with her magic, a locked door wouldn't be much of a hindrance for her, but it still would slow them both down and maybe give her the chance to knock them out again. While the rest left the cellar, Anya mumbling something which probably was kinky about chains to her boyfriend, Buffy reloaded the tranquilizer gun, then leaned it against the chair; with another small sigh, she made herself as comfortable as possible, asking herself if Giles had been right about the couple waking up soon.

To her dismay and immense boredom, she had to wait almost another fifteen minutes until at least Pat was making some groaning noises, indicating that she was about to wake up; alerted, the Slayer straightened up in her seat, watching the demon closely, her gaze meeting the taller woman's when her good eye opened and she looked at her in confusion for a moment – before she snarled, making it clear that Amy's influence wasn't gone yet.

"Don't try to free yourself", Buffy warned her before she had the chance to say something though, "you know I can kick your butt, and I will if you try anything stupid."

"You might be able to kick my butt, you won't be able to kick the butts of the demons and vampires Amy will send here to free us", Pat gave back in reply, sounding smug; to her obvious distress though, Buffy smiled in reply, all at once realizing that the demon's words had given her a perfect opportunity to point out that she hadn't been on Amy's side all the time, as she might believe thanks to the spell the possessed woman had performed.

"I'm quite sure I will", she stated, leaning back into the chair comfortably again, "since I did it before. With your help, just in case you don't remember."

"That's bullshit", the demon immediately replied, clearly without giving the blonde's words much thought, "I'd never… fight…"

She trailed off as all at once, memories flashed up in her mind, images of Buffy and her fighting side by side, against a horde of demons; clearly confused, she shut up, the Slayer immediately taking the chance given and leaning forward again, holding the taller woman's gaze as she replied.

"You remember, don't you? I don't know how much Amy messed up your mind with her little trick, but clearly she didn't mess it up enough. Giles is quite sure that her influence will fade away if you're apart from her long enough, then you'll see I'm right."

"Whatever", the black haired woman muttered in reply, getting out her cigarettes and lighting one of them up; to her obvious discomfort, Buffy didn't plan to leave even though it was more or less clear that at least Pat wouldn't try to free herself, the Slayer just making herself comfortable again as she watched the demon smoke, asking herself how much longer it would take until Amy's spell would finally wear off.

* * *

In the end, it took almost three hours until Amy's influence on the couple faded, giving them both major headaches as it did so; to Buffy's relief, neither of them had tried to escape during that time, the two even remaining calm and peaceful when the Slayer went to join her friends upstairs once she had realized that it would take longer than expected for the couple to return to normal. By the time that finally happened, Buffy and Giles were alone in the living room, the rest having gone to sleep; to distract themselves, they had switched on the TV and were watching some mindless sitcom, the noise this was making keeping them from hearing at first Willow, then Pat and then both of them calling out to them, the witch soon losing her patience and doing what she hadn't done under Amy's influence, namely using her magic to open the locks on their chains.

Thus, the couple gave Buffy and Giles quite the scare when they unexpectedly entered the living room; they both jumped, the Watcher even letting out a surprisingly high-pitched yelp, the noise earning him funny looks from the three women – before Willow shook her head, the smirk on her face being enough to show Buffy that she had come back to her normal self, her next words only confirming this further. "Wow Giles, I never you knew you can go so high. I think you nearly shattered that glass over there."

"Very funny", the Watcher dryly replied, taking off his glasses and eying the couple curiously afterwards while Buffy rose from her seat and moved over to them.

"So you're back to normal", she stated matter-of-factly, making them both nod – before Willow cleared her throat and even blushed a bit, sounding meek when she replied. "Yes we are, and I'm sorry for throwing you against the table back then…"

"Not your fault", Buffy immediately shrugged it off, to the obvious relief of her best friend, "I'll blame that one on Amy, and pay her back for it. You're not suffering from any side-effects now, are you?"

"Headache", Pat grimaced in reply, making the Slayer look at her, "and a tremendous one, too. You don't happen to have some aspirin around, right?"

"In the bathroom", Buffy replied, making the demon nod before she turned and marched off to get the pills, the Slayer focusing on Willow again, sounding a bit concerned when she spoke up once more. "How much of your time with Amy do you remember?"

"Everything", Willow sighed in reply, grimacing afterwards, the tiniest tremble in her voice as she continued. "It was as if… I don't even know how to explain it properly. You know, when I went evil, after Tara had been killed, all of me was in on it, and as much as I hate to admit it, I was enjoying it, back then. But this time… There was this small part of me, tiny actually, which knew that nothing of what was going on was right, but that part was too tiny to do anything, so all it could do was watch and shout, trying to be heard…"

She trailed off, not sure if she had put her point across, but also knowing that she couldn't tell Buffy about how it really had been, how horrible the experience had been, how that small part of herself, the part which still was the real Willow, had been locked up in her own mind and had been screaming to be let out while her spell-fuelled evil side had been under Amy's command.

"Sounds awful", the Slayer now grimaced, just in time for Pat to hear as she returned with the aspirin bottle, taking three of the small white pills for herself before she handed the bottle to Willow, the witch nodding her agreement while she helped herself to some of the painkillers as well. With a grimace, Buffy watched how they both gulped the pills down dry, without any water to make them go down easier; moments later, they both grimaced as well, then Pat held the bottle up for closer examination, squinting at the best before date, an incredulous look on her face when she glanced at the Slayer again afterwards.

"Buffy, those things are ancient", she pointed out, turning the bottle so the blonde could look at the expiration date as well, making her clear her throat noisily as she realized that her friend was right.

"Um, sorry", she then apologized, "but I don't need much of that stuff, Slayer healing and everything, so I didn't really notice…"

"That doesn't make them poisonous or something, right?" the demon demanded to know in reply, throwing Willow a worried look; to her dismay, the witch couldn't tell for sure, reassuring her though that she was quite positive it wouldn't have any dangerous effects.

"We should all get some rest", Buffy stated as soon as Pat had been calmed down about the possible disastrous side effects of expired aspirin, "we might need our full strength again soon, when Amy will strike back. Willow, do you think you can stop her from doing this to the two of you again?"

"Now that I know she can do it, sure", the redhead gave back, to the great relief of her girlfriend and Buffy, "I'll just need some rest first."

"And rest is what you'll get then", Pat almost ordered, making the witch smile weakly while she nodded; the demon returned her smile, then wished Buffy a good night, prompting Willow to do the same before they made their way upstairs together, all at once realizing how tired they were, their need for a few hours of sleep pushing everything else aside as they entered the bedroom and almost collapsed on the double bed, both of them fast asleep seconds after their heads had hit the pillows.


	4. Chapter 4

Several hours later, Willow was the first one to wake up, relief flooding her the moment she opened her eyes and realized that she still was in the bedroom which once had belonged to Buffy's mom and that no unwelcome, dark presence was taking over her mind again; with a small smile on her face, she rolled over, her smile widening as her gaze fell on the woman beside her and she heard the soft snoring sounds coming from her, making it clear that Pat still was fast asleep.

Carefully, since she didn't want to wake her girlfriend up, Willow got out of the bed and made her way to the shelf where she had stacked the spellbooks she had brought along; she quickly found the right one and sat down on the edge of the bed before she started leaving through it, after a while finding the spell she had been looking for, the one which would protect both Pat and her from ending up under Amy's control again.

To her relief, the spell didn't need too many ingredients, and a quick check of her supplies showed that she already had most of the things needed; she made a mental note of the still missing ingredients, figuring that she could go to the Magic Box later to get them, momentarily grimacing as she thought of how Anya might complain about that, the sounds of Pat waking up behind her distracting her from those thoughts though and making her look at her girlfriend, the open spellbook still in her lap.

"Good morning", the witch smiled as the demon's gaze met hers, ignoring the fact that it was far from morning, "slept well?"

"Uh-huh", Pat mumbled in reply, sitting up and rubbing her good eye tiredly before she gestured at the spellbook, sounding mildly curious when she spoke up again. "Looking for a spell to keep Amy away from our minds?"

"Already found one", Willow gave back, smiling proudly at her loved one, "and I'll perform it as soon as possible, I'll just need to get some stuff from the Magic Box first. Want to come along?"

"Of course I'll come along", the black haired woman immediately gave back, slightly surprised about the fact that Willow might think otherwise, "I won't let you out of my sight as long as Amy's still undefeated, no matter how fucked up said sight actually is."

At this, the witch's gaze softened as she looked at the eye patch, her heart once more clenching up with sympathy for her loved one; in response, Pat gave her a wry smile, then clearly shrugged the topic off since she suggested that Buffy should come along as well, just to make sure someone would be there to stop them in case Amy should "do her stupid mojo" again, as the demon put it.

"And she should take the tranquilizer gun along, as well", Willow added, making the black haired woman nod, albeit with a slight grimace as she remembered the hangover-like feeling the tranquilizer had given her; Willow briefly smiled at her, then snapped the spellbook shut and put it on the ground before she moved closer to her loved one, her smile widening when immediately, the taller woman put both arms around her and pulled her into a tender snuggle.

"We should get up and tell Buffy that we need to go to the store", the witch pointed out once she had made herself comfortable, not making any move to put her own words into action; smirking at her lack of movement, Pat nodded, then kept her from moving for a bit longer by kissing her tenderly, the kiss soon deepening as during their time under Amy's control, there hadn't been any tenderness between them.

When they finally had to pull apart again due to oxygen becoming an issue, Willow's face was flushed while the demon had a well-known, lusty glint in her eye; clearing her throat, the witch forced herself to move out of her lover's and get out of bed, her voice trembling just enough to let Pat notice when she spoke up. "We better go and get Buffy, or… well, you know what'll happen."

"Yup", the demon confirmed with a sigh, getting out of bed as well afterwards; together, the couple made their way downstairs, finding the Slayer in the kitchen there where she was preparing a can of coffee, looking up from the coffee machine as she heard the two enter.

* * *

"Oh, coffee, wonderful", Pat stated immediately the second she saw what Buffy had been doing, "you're my hero, Buffy."

"Don't say that too early", the Slayer warned with a smirk on her face, "my coffee isn't exactly the best in the world. Or even good. Willow always says it tastes like mud."

"Well, Pat won't notice if it does, seeing she pours ungodly amounts of sugar into her coffee", the witch pointed out, making the demon raise an eyebrow at her before she shrugged it off and sat down at the kitchen table, the redhead taking the seat beside her, asking Buffy if she'd accompany them to the Magic Box after the coffee, making her nod immediately.

"I don't think Amy will be able to do another one of those control spells, not so soon", Willow calmed her down once she had given her agreement, "but just to be on the safe side…"

"And in case she sends some demons or vampires to attack", the Slayer added in reply, throwing a pointed look out the window and the darkness outside; her tone became apologetic as her glance moved towards Pat and she spoke on, the demon grimacing slightly at her words. "No offense, but fighting might be harder for you now, with your depth perception, well…"

"It isn't what it used to be", the demon replied dryly, "but I did well enough during that fight outside with the demons, remember?"

"I know", Buffy hurried to reassure her, not wanting to offend her, "but… well, just to be on the safe side."

"Yeah", the black haired woman admitted after a moment, Willow giving her a concerned look before she reached over and placed a comforting hand on her arm; the tender touch made her girlfriend look at her, a weak smile briefly curling her lips before it died away again, making it clear that she still wasn't handling the loss of her eye as well as she had pretended so far.

"I hate it when my foot lives in my mouth like that", Buffy muttered, giving the demon another apologetic glance; to her relief, Pat clearly shrugged it off, changing the topic by gesturing at the coffee machine afterwards and pointing out that the coffee was done. As always, the black haired woman added three heaped spoonfuls of sugar to hers, making Willow grimace and shake her head at the sight; the smirk her girlfriend gave her in reply was much more honest than the smile from before, the witch almost automatically smiling back, with Buffy watching the scene in silence, her happiness about having her friends back by her side clearly showing on her face.

* * *

Twenty minutes later, the three of them left the house, Buffy leaving a note for the rest on the kitchen table so they'd knew where they had gone, Willow carrying a pouch filled with the ingredients for the protection spell she already had had in her possession; at first, she had been insecure about doing the spell at the Magic Box, with all the other ingredients and magical artefacts lying around there, but Buffy and Pat had convinced her that it'd be for the best if she did the spell as fast as possible.

As they walked the suspiciously quiet streets though, Buffy became more and more convinced that this had been a mistake; she kept shooting glances in all directions, eventually prompting Pat to ask her if something was wrong, a sigh and shrug coming from her before she answered, giving the demon a look which somehow managed to be apologetic and defiant at the same time.

"I'm not sure", she stated, looking over her shoulder once more, "I get the feeling it's been a mistake to leave the house now… Maybe we should have waited until tomorrow morning."

"And give Amy time to recharge and fuck up our minds again? No way", Pat protested, Willow automatically muttering "Language" at her while Buffy sighed once more, her gaze darting around again as she tried to figure out if she was just getting paranoid or if there really was a threat waiting somewhere down the street.

"You're right", she finally had to admit, despite her conviction that something was about to go wrong, "it would have been too risky to wait that long… I still have the feeling that we're about to get attacked though."

"Then we'll fight them off", Pat shrugged, getting one of her cigarettes out of the pack and putting it into her mouth, patting her pockets afterwards as she looked for the lighter Willow had given her a while ago. "Flawed depth perception or not, I can still burn fangies to ashes… or dust, whatever, and we handled that demons quite well the last—"

The throwing knife was stopped an inch from her face as Buffy caught it at the hilt with lighting speed, the sharp blade slicing her cigarette apart; as she stood and stared at the knife, crumbs of tobacco fell to the ground, only the cigarette filter remaining between her lips, tumbling to the sidewalk as well a second later when her jaw dropped.

"Holy shit", the demon brought out before she regained her senses, cursing herself for paying too much attention on Buffy and too little on her surroundings; at least now though, all her senses were fully alert – well, except for her reduced sight, she had to admit grudgingly – and no words were necessary as she moved to place Willow between Buffy and herself, knowing that she had to protect her at all cost.

"Nice catch, Slayer", a rather unpleasant voice now commented, the speaker sounding as if he was talking through a mouthful of mud; moments later, he came into view as he stepped out of a dark side alley, several demons and vampires right behind him, looking as unpleasant as he had sounded with his skin hanging in shreds from his body, exposing muscles and sinews to the world.

"Why do you guys always have to look so horrible?" Buffy sighed in reply, casually twirling the knife and managing to make some of the vampires look a bit uneasy, "you should learn a lesson from Pat here, she looks normal when she's not demoned out."

"Except for the lost eye", one of the vampires dared to point out, the black haired woman glaring at him in response, her answer making the Slayer smirk despite the rather serious situation of being outnumbered by their opponents. "I didn't _lose_ it. I know perfectly well where it is."

"Too bad you can't retrieve it from there, huh", the vampire who had made the comment went on, grinning a fangy grin at her; she shrugged in response, then smiled a rather malicious smile, smoke starting to rise from her clothes seconds later, the sight wiping the vampire's grin off his bumpy face.

"Too bad indeed, but don't count on surviving this fight just because of that", she calmly warned him – before the smoke turned into fire, the sight of her fists being engulfed by flames seemingly working as a signal for their attackers, all of them letting out howls or growls as they charged at the three.


	5. Chapter 5

Author's Note: There's some kinda graphic violence and ass-kicking in this chapter (nothing worse than on the show though, I think...), so the faint of heart should maybe be warned. I hope you'll enjoy anyway (or because of it, who knows? ;])

* * *

Even though Pat wanted nothing more than rush at them and beat the crap out of them, she forced herself to remain where she was, telling herself that she had to make sure Willow remained between Buffy and her, where she'd be as safe as she could be in such a situation; she still had time to curse the fact that she hadn't thought of bringing along a weapon, then told herself that her fire would be helpful enough and that she had fought off foes often enough like that, just as the vampire who had dared to make that idiotic comment about her ruined eye reached her.

Without allowing herself to worry about messing up due to lack of depth perception, she swiftly ducked his rather clumsy punch, simultaneously reaching up with one hand and grabbing his outstretched arm, setting his jacket on fire, the flames quickly spreading while she used her free hand to deliver several fierce punches into his gut, then used the grip she still had on him to fling him against one of the demons, the two going down in a tumble of arms, legs and flames, both of them howling in pain, the vampire's howls ending abruptly when the flames consumed too much of his body and he vanished in a cloud of dust.

Behind her, Buffy used the knife she had caught to deal some major damage as well, slashing at a demon's arm when he tried to hit her and, in one fluid movement, turning to cut a vampire's throat, turning him into dust as well; before said dust had vanished, she already had spun around once more, ramming the knife into the gut of the demon she had cut, then letting a kick follow, sending the creature to the ground where it writhed in pain before it finally died, the knife handle still protruding from its stomach.

Between the Slayer and Pat, Willow kept glancing left and right, hoping that none of their opponents would get the idea to attack her; technically, she could keep any of them away from her with a spell, but she knew that she'd need all her energy to perform the protective magic which would make sure Amy wouldn't gain control over Pat and her again, the witch thus feeling thankful when her girlfriend and her best friend successfully kept their attackers from her, the two of them managing to switch positions while they did so, with the black haired woman now at her left, close to the demon Buffy had stabbed, and the Slayer at her right.

Spotting the knife which had almost hit her right in the face, Pat dropped to her knees as yet another vampire aimed a – rather well done, she had to admit – high kick at her; with one motion, she pulled the knife out of the demon's corpse and jabbed it upwards, a satisfied smirk appearing on her face when she heard the demon howl in pain. A silvery glint from her right caught her eye, and she looked over just in time to see Mud Mouth, as she had dubbed him the moment she had heard him speak, pull back his arm to throw another knife; moments later, the blade whirred through the air, only to be deflected inches from Willow's face with an audible _clang_, the witch letting out a gasp while her loved one flipped the knife she had used to block the thrown one, briefly holding it at the tip before she threw it as well, grumbling when the blade didn't hit the demon in the throat as she had planned it, but got stuck in his meaty shoulder instead.

"At least you got his throwing arm!" Buffy called out to her while almost casually twisting a vampire's head and turning him into yet another pile of dust; moments later, both the Slayer and the fiery demon groaned as Mud Mouth simply switched to his other hand and threw yet another blade, Buffy managing to avoid it just in time with a surprisingly graceful spin to the left, Pat's voice full of annoyance when she replied to the blonde's previous comment. "Figures that he's ambidextrous!"

"And equipped with too many of those knives", Buffy added as she watched the demon remove yet another knife from his belt, several more knife handles visible in the loops which had been sewn on it; before Pat could make a comment about that though, she was distracted by two demons now attacking her simultaneously, forcing her to focus on them fully, her centuries of experience as an assassin coming in handy as she caught the leg of the taller demon when he tried to kick her, twisting with as much force as she could, the sound of the bones breaking loud enough to let her hear them clearly despite the demon's pain-filled howl.

Dropping and ignoring him, she still wasn't fast enough to avoid or block the second punch and had to take it full in the face, a grunt escaping her, but at least she was prepared for the next punch, ducking beneath it and ramming her elbow into the demon's gut, knocking the air out of him. As he doubled over, she grabbed him and jerked him up and in front of her, just in time to make him the target of the knife Mud Mouth had thrown; it ended up stuck in the throat of her demonic shield, and he fell, horrible gurgling sounds coming from him as he let out his last breaths.

While Pat took care of her two opponents, Buffy was busy with a vampire and demon team; she handled them rather easily by ramming their heads together hard enough to make their skulls crack, using the absurdly long claws on the demon's hands afterwards to finish off the vampire before she got rid of the demon as well by breaking his neck, effectively reducing the number of their opponents to three, one of them being Mud Mouth, removing yet another knife from his belt, a smirk curling his thick lips when he realized that both Buffy and Pat were too occupied by the two remaining demons to pay much attention on him.

The moment he threw the knife, the blonde did notice, but was too far away to keep the blade from hitting its target; and even though Willow had seen it coming, her reflexes weren't as good as those of the Slayer or of Pat, her try to duck the knife failing, the weapon digging into her shoulder and making her cry out in pain as she staggered, then fell, feeling how blood trickled from the wound and soaked her blouse.

Distantly, she heard how Pat let out an unarticulated yell of pure anger as she saw her loved one go down; without thinking much, the black haired woman sent the demon she had been busy with to the ground with a fierce punch, burning off half his face as she did so, then launched herself at Mud Mouth, making him realize too late what a crucial mistake he had made when he had attacked the witch. Before he could do as much as move his hand to his knife belt again, she was on him, her hands closing around his throat and lifting him off his feet, despite his bulky build; not sure if he should howl in pain as his skin was burned or choke due to lack of her, he feebly tried to kick her, then started swatting at her arms when he realized she wouldn't let go, only to grunt in pain again when the flames from her hands spread all the way up to her shoulders, burning him further each time he hit her.

Snarling up at him, Pat tightened her grip around his throat, cutting off the last tiny flow of air he had been able to suck into his lungs; he writhed in her iron grasp a bit longer, then his body went limp as he finally died, the black haired woman dropping him the second she could be sure he had kicked the bucket. Forgetting him the moment he hit the ground, she rushed over to where Willow half laid, half sat on the cold pavement, Buffy beside her, the two surrounded by the dead and dying demons, the noises the dying ones where making mixing with the soft groans Willow was letting out.

"How bad is it?" Pat demanded to know, eying the knife handle protruding from her loved one's flesh; giving her a helpless look, all Buffy could do was shrug, her voice full of concern when she replied. "I'm not sure… We have to get her to the hospital."

"No", Willow groaned out in reply, making both the Slayer and the demon look at her in shock, "the Magic Box first… I have to do the spell…"

"You won't do any spells with a knife in your shoulder!" Pat almost snapped, then briefly shook her head as if to clear it, her voice much kinder when she continued. "That can wait until that wound was treated…"

"No", the redhead protested once more in reply, putting on what the others always called her "resolve face", "we have to do that spell first… Before Amy regains enough of her strength…"

"You'll take her to the hospital", Buffy decided in reply, after a moment of thought, "and I'll go to the store and get the stuff she still needs. I'll meet you there."

"Alright", Pat agreed, before Willow could try to talk back again; ignoring the feeble protests of her girlfriend, the demon picked her up on her arms as carefully as possible, but no matter how cautious she was, she still couldn't avoid it to increase the redhead's pain, making the smaller woman groan softly again at the movement.

"Shht", she mumbled soothingly as she started carrying her towards the hospital, "you'll be fine… Just try not to move, and I'll try not to bounce you around too much…"

In response, Willow finally gave up her protests; she nodded wearily, then rested her head on her girlfriend's shoulder as she let herself be carried to the hospital while Buffy turned and hurried off to the Magic Box, silently vowing to herself that she'd make Amy pay sooner or later for all the pain she had inflicted on her closest friends.

* * *

By the time they arrived at the hospital, Willow was close to passing out from the pain, now that the shock had faded, and had to admit that Buffy had been right when she had insisted that she needed medical treatment; even though Pat had given her best to keep her promise, and had carried her as carefully, but still as quickly as possible, each step of the black haired woman had sent jolts of pain from her wounded shoulder through her upper body and all the way into her brain, relief filling her when finally, the demon carried her inside the hospital building, snapping at the closest nurse that they needed help and sending the clearly shocked elder woman off to find a doctor.

While the nurse was gone to get someone who could deal with this, another one came hurrying over, pushing a stretcher in front of her and telling Pat to put the redhead on it; despite her tries to do this gently, it made the witch groan in pain again, and she clutched her girlfriend's hand the moment she laid on the stretcher, the demon's heart aching again at how sweaty the palm felt against hers.

Eager to give her some comfort, the black haired woman squeezed her hand tenderly, moving her free hand to caress Willow's hair, whispering soothing words to her while they waited for a doctor to arrive; after another minute, the nurse Pat had snapped at came back instead with another one in tow, telling the taller woman rather briskly that she had to let go of "her friend" so Willow could be taken into the ER, where the knife would be removed and the wound be taken care of.

"Don't leave me alone", she almost whimpered, "please…"

"I won't", Pat immediately reassured her, the glare she gave the nurse before she even could try to protest being enough to make her remain quiet; the two nurses exchanged wary glances, clearly faced with this more or less regularly – especially in a town like Sunnydale – then told the demon that at least, she'd have to let go of her friend's hand so the stretcher could be rolled into the ER.

Hesitatingly, Pat did so, following the nurses when they started to hurry through the entrance hall, then rounded a corner and quickly reached the large double doors leading to the area of the hospital where the emergency rooms were located; when she wanted to enter the room marked with "ER 2" though, a male nurse stopped her, giving her a strict look, unfazed by the glare he received in response.

"Sorry, Miss, but you can't enter with her", he told her, briefly giving her the urge to just punch him out, especially when she heard Willow call out her name in such a small, scared voice that it broke her heart; the male nurse remained unimpressed though, Pat only giving him another glare while she forced down the urge to beat him up and called out to her loved one, promising her that she would wait right outside the ER and that everything would be fine.

Seconds afterwards, the door leading into the ER was closed by the male nurse, leaving the demon standing alone in the hallway; for a few more moments, she stared at the door, then let out a sigh and moved back to the wall, leaning against it and trying to keep down her concern for her loved one as she started counting the seconds it would take for the treatment to be done.


	6. Chapter 6

To Pat's dismay, finishing the treatment of her loved one took longer than expected; by the time Buffy arrived with the ingredients from the Magic Box, Willow still was in the ER, something the demon told the Slayer rather dismayed when the blonde inquired about her best friend. Cleary not all too happy about hearing this as well, Buffy leaned against the wall next to the taller woman, placing the bag with the ingredients between her feet; they stood side by side in silence for a while, then the Slayer spoke up again, glancing up at Pat as she did so. "I know how heartless this may sound, but I hope this won't make it impossible for her to cast the spell…"

"You saw how stubborn she was about going here", the demon sighed out in reply, throwing another dismayed glance at the door leading into the ER, "so I doubt she'll let it stop her, no matter how much it hurts. And it didn't sound heartless, don't worry."

"They'll probably want to keep her here for a while", Buffy mused, making Pat nod in reply; the look they exchanged afterwards was enough to tell without words that they both knew what Willow would think about that and that a lengthy hospital stay was highly unlikely to happen.

With another small sigh, the demon focused on the ER door once more, shifting her feet as she waited for said door to open at last; it took another fifteen minutes until this finally happened, the sight of the redhead marching out of the ER, her wounded arm in a sling and a bandage covering up the knife wound, while discussing something rather heatedly with the doctor next to her astonishing both Buffy and Pat – they both had known that the witch would refuse to stay in the hospital, but still hadn't expected her to be walking around already, so shortly after her wound had been taken care of.

Since during the process of treating said wound, her blouse had suffered quite the damage, Pat quickly took off her jacket and carefully draped it around the smaller woman's shoulders, covering up what had been exposed when the clothing had been cut away from the wound; briefly, Willow gave her a thankful look, then focused on the doctor again, her voice stern when she told him once more that she refused to stay here any longer.

"This is highly unwise", the doctor gave back, crossing his arms over his chest and giving her an annoyed look. "You should at least stay here until tomorrow, even though I'd recommend a longer stay. Knife wounds should be taken seriously."

"I am taking it serious", Willow replied, returning the annoyed glance he had given her, "but I won't stay here. I have important tasks to finish."

"I doubt they are so important that they can't wait a few days", the doctor replied heatedly, Buffy finally stepping in a moment later as she realized that, if she didn't end this quickly, they'd stand around here and listen to that discussion longer than they could afford it.

"Give it up, Doctor", she thus stated, "just let her sign some form that she's leaving on her own responsibility or something and then let her go, she won't give in."

"If you're her friend, you should convince her to", the doctor snapped in reply, Buffy just shrugging as an answer, not bothering to explain that she knew Willow well enough to be aware of the fact that nothing she would say or do could convince her to stay in the hospital; next to her, Pat shook her head as well, giving the doctor an apologetic smile while she confirmed the Slayer's words, telling the elder man that it'd be best to just let the redhead go and be done with it.

With a heavy sigh, the doctor gave in at last, clearly realizing that the two were right and that there was nothing he could do to make his stubborn patient stay; thus, he asked her to wait so he could get the release form, then hurried off, muttering to himself about stubborn people who risked their health for whatever unimportant stuff they thought they had to get done with as fast as possible.

"Did you get the ingredients?" Willow demanded to know the moment he was out of earshot, looking at Buffy; nodding, the Slayer gestured at the bag between her feet, her voice full of concern when she replied. "I did, but… Are you sure you're in the right condition to do that spell now?"

"Yes", the witch immediately gave back, "I have to be, before Amy regains too much of her strength. We've lost too much time already while I've been in that ER, so we should do it right after leaving from here."

"Maybe I can help you again", Pat offered in reply, giving her a concerned look as well, gesturing at the sling which kept her from moving her arm around too much afterwards. "Who knows how much that'll affect the casting…"

"I can do it", Willow replied stubbornly, making her girlfriend frown at her, something which she successfully ignored though; before Buffy or Pat had the chance to say anything else, the doctor came back, carrying the release form and handing it to the redhead grudgingly, telling her that, once she'd sign it, leaving the hospital was done on her own responsibility only and that the hospital could not be held accountable for any health risk caused by her wound.

Ignoring the reproachful tone of his voice, the redhead signed said form, the doctor giving her an annoyed glance once more while he took it back after she had scribbled her signature on it; ignoring this as well, Willow thanked him with absurd politeness while Buffy picked up the bag of ingredients, nodding when the witch asked her if they could go now.

Together, the three of them left the hospital, the redhead giving her best not to let her pain show as she made her way down the corridor next to her loved one; the painkiller they had given her before they had started the treatment had been quite strong, but still each step sent waves of pain from her shoulder through her whole body, something she was determined to ignore though at least until the spell was done, knowing that this was too important to let it wait any longer and that she could deal with her pain after the spell had been performed and Pat and she would be safe from any attempts Amy might make to take over their minds once more.

* * *

It didn't take long to find a spot where the spell could be performed in peace, in a park close to the hospital; after making sure that no one was around who might spot them and wonder what they were doing, Willow prepared the ingredients she'd need for the spell, regretting the fact that she didn't have any candles, but telling herself that it also would work without those.

While she was busy with putting the ingredients up in the right order, something which took her considerably longer than usual since she only could use her right hand, she asked Pat to dig a shallow pit, the demon doing so without question; once she had finished, the redhead knelt in front of the pit her girlfriend had provided, taking in a deep breath before she looked at her, once more pushing her pain aside so she could concentrate on performing the spell properly. "When I add that last ingredient, I'll need fire so the spell can be completed… Just throw a tiny fireball on the stuff, can you do that?"

"Sure", the demon shrugged in reply, Willow giving her a small smile before she focused on the task at hand fully; after another deep breath, she started mumbling the words of the spell, throwing the various leaves, herbs and powders she had brought along into the pit, adding the stuff Buffy had gotten from the Magic Box as well, the Slayer and Pat watching curiously, with the demon getting ready to provide the fire Willow had asked for as the line of ingredients in front of her grew shorter and shorter.

Finally, she added the last one to the small pile, still mumbling Latin words to herself; next to her, Pat let one hand flame up, flicking a rather unimpressive, small ball of fire at the pile of ingredients just as Willow had asked her to – only to flinch back when the flame increased tenfold in size, briefly flickering blue, red and green before it puffed away, leaving nothing behind but the scorched earth of the pit.

"…did it work?" Buffy asked after a few moments had passed in stunned silence and the smoke from the burning of the ingredients had died away; smiling weakly, clearly exhausted, Willow nodded, slight pride in her voice when she replied. "I'm pretty sure it did… Did you feel anything?"

With those words, she looked at the demon, glad when the taller woman nodded in reply, tapping the side of her head afterwards, smiling slightly at the witch as she answered her. "I did, it was kinda like a flash of colour going off behind my eyes… eye… whatever. Didn't hurt though."

"Good", the redhead gave back, "I wouldn't want to hurt you…"

"And I don't want you to hurt, so we better get you home now", Pat gave back, making the witch nod in reply; once more giving her best to hide her pain, not wanting to worry her girlfriend and her best friend, she came to her feet – only to groan and nearly stagger as the exhaustion of performing the spell combined with the aching wound and loss of blood took its toll on her.

Quickly, before she could fall, Pat grabbed her around the waist, steadying her; she gave her a strict look, but to the redhead's relief didn't bring up going to the hospital again, merely stating that it was high time to get her back to Buffy's house.

"We better get a taxi or something", the Slayer suggested, eying her friend with concern clearly showing in her eyes, "I don't think she's fit to walk all the way back home…"

"There's a payphone at the park's entrance gate", Pat pointed out in reply, "we could call Giles or Xander and ask them to pick us up."

"Xander", the blonde immediately decided, "Giles only will insist on taking Willow back to the hospital."

"Probably", the black haired woman had to admit in reply, keeping her arm around the waist of her girlfriend afterwards as they started to make their way to the entrance gate, quickly locating the payphone there; after Buffy had found a quarter in her purse, she called the house, glad when Xander was the one to answer the phone, sounding awfully sleepy at first, but fully awake when Buffy told him that she needed him to pick them up and where they were, briefly explaining that Willow had been hurt in a fight and that thus, it wouldn't be wise to let her walk all the way back to the house.

"I'll be there as fast as possible", the young man promised as soon as Buffy had finished her explanation, "no worries, the Xand-Man comes to the rescue in his trusty Xand-Mobile!"

"Alright", the Slayer smiled in reply, "we'll be waiting at the park gate then… See you in a few."

"See you", Xander gave back before hanging up; making her way back to where Pat and Willow were waiting, the witch sitting on the low fundament for the park's high iron railing, her by now pale and slightly sweaty face making it clear that her pain only had worsened since they had left the hospital, her girlfriend standing next to her and smoking a cigarette, looking worried.

"We should pick up some stronger painkillers tomorrow", she suggested after Buffy had informed the couple that Xander would be there soon, "I doubt aspirin will do for that… Apart from the fact that the aspirin in your house is ancient."

"Good idea", the Slayer agreed, placing a tender hand on her best friend's healthy shoulder afterwards, her voice full of concern as she continued. "Are you sure you don't want to go back into the hospital? Now that the spell is done…"

She trailed off, waiting for the witch to answer; it didn't surprise her when Willow shook her head, giving her a weak smile afterwards.

"It'll be fine", she then reassured the blonde, "really… Especially if you'll get me some proper painkillers tomorrow. Plus, I don't want to lie around in the hospital while the rest of you might have to deal with any other surprises Amy could still have up her sleeve."

"Stubborn as always", Pat commented, the smirk on her face showing though that those words hadn't been intended as harsh; looking up at her, Willow just nodded, her smile widening slightly when the demon moved one hand to caress her hair tenderly, obviously eager to give her some comfort. Smiling at the sweet sight as well, Buffy just watched them for a few moments, once more glad that they both were back to normal and that in the future, Amy wouldn't be able to get them under her control again; then, she sat down next to the witch as she waited for Xander to arrive, her mind once more focusing on their possessed opponent as she tried to come up with a plan to stop her and return the Devil possessing her where it belonged.


	7. Chapter 7

As Xander had promised, he arrived quickly, surprising Buffy with his insight when he presented a pack of the strongest painkillers one could buy without a prescription the moment the three women had climbed into his car, flashing his trademark toothy smile at them while he handed the pack of pills to the redhead.

"I figured you might need that, after what Buffy told me", he stated, while Willow held back the urge to tear the pack open and swallow one of them dry, telling herself she could wait until they were at home and could gulp it down with some water, "so I stopped at the pharmacy close to the mall, they're the ones with night duty tonight."

"That's very kind of you", the redhead smiled, carefully putting the pack into the pocket of Pat's jacket, "thanks…"

"Don't mention it", the young man shrugged it off, focusing on the road as he drove back to the house, his next words making the witch's smile widen. "Just don't try to catch any flying knives anymore in the future!"

"I'll give my best", Willow promised in response, grimacing as she thought about how it felt when the knife had hit her; next to her, Pat gave her a reassuring smile, reaching over to take tender hold of her healthy hand, the touch making the witch smile back at her immediately.

"I'll catch those knives for you in the future", the demon promised, Willow not sure for a moment if she should smile at that or be horrified at the thought; then, she did smile, bending over to kiss her loved one briefly before she stated that hopefully, no knife catching would be necessary in the near future, making her girlfriend chuckle and nod, the couple exchanging another tender kiss afterwards, the feeling of Pat's lips on hers for a few wonderful moments blowing all of her pain away.

* * *

Amy already had been frustrated when she had felt the demons and vampires she had sent to take care of the pesky Slayer and her friends die one by one, but at least, this had given her some of her strength back; it had drained her quite much to survive the collapse of her church, and the damage her power centre had taken hadn't made things exactly easier, either, but her frustration reached new heights when she tried to work her mind control spell on Willow and Pat once more – and was stopped by some kind of barrier in their minds, keeping her magic from taking effect.

"Dammit!" she snarled as she tried once more, despite how tired and drained she already felt, only to be blocked by the pesky barrier again, "damn that idiot witch!"

Angrily, she slammed her fist down on the altar she still sat on, causing the demons around her to give her some frightened looks; ignoring them, she checked out the progress of their work instead, satisfied to see that at least, the crude shelter they had started to built around her centre of power was close to getting done – after all, it wouldn't be very dignifying for the one who now was hosting the Devil's spirit to end up soaking wet in case of rain.

It didn't surprise her that so far, no one had come to investigate the fire at the church and the fact that it had collapsed into a pile of rubble and wood; even though she technically couldn't afford it, her powers were keeping any curious citizens and even the officials away, making sure that no one would disturb her and waste her time with stupid questions, something she couldn't be bothered with, especially not right now, with her energies slowly recharging after how much she had been forced to use when the building had gone down.

Briefly, she fought the urge to try the mind control spell once more, knowing it wouldn't do any good anyway; she grumbled to herself at this loss of two valuable companions, then forced herself to shrug it off, knowing that for now, there wasn't much she could do – not until her powers had reached their full potential.

"Then, I'll make her pay", she vowed to herself, once more gaining frightening looks from her demons, and again ignoring them. "I'll make her wish she was never born…"

The thought of what she would be able to do to Willow once she'd have her full power made her smile maliciously, a sight which frightened her demons even more than her anger had seconds ago; giving their best to appear busy, they all hoped she wouldn't notice them as they kept building the shelter, their relief almost palpable when after a while, Amy laid back down on the altar and closed her eyes, once more resting to gain the energy she'd need to deal with all of this.

* * *

Once they had arrived at the house, Pat immediately ushered Willow into the bedroom, practically ordering her to lie down and not to get out of bed anymore unless she needed to use the bathroom; once she was sure that her girlfriend was safely tucked in, she went to get her a glass of water for the painkillers, taking the time to wish the rest of the gang a good night before she made her way back to the bedroom, satisfied to see that the redhead had stayed in bed while she had been gone.

"You know, I'm surprised they didn't knock you out to treat that wound", she stated while she put the glass of water on the nightstand, then moved to pick up her jacket where Willow had dropped it, finding the pack of painkillers Xander had bought in one of the pockets; after quickly reading through the package insert, she removed two of the pills from the pack, then made her way to the bed and sat down on it, handing the pills and the glass to her loved one.

"They wanted to", Willow had to admit after swallowing the medication, "but I wouldn't let them, that would have cost us too much time."

In response, the demon just raised an eyebrow, then shook her head, to the redhead's relief smiling slightly when she spoke up, sparing her the lecture she had been sure she'd receive now, lacking her girlfriend's healing factor and the benefits it brought. "That's quite ballsy. Also stupid, but mostly ballsy. Didn't it hurt like Hell?"

"Not so much actually", the witch replied, smiling when the taller woman made herself comfortable next to her and carefully took her into her arms, "they gave me quite the good painkiller before they started treating me, after I'd made it clear to them I wouldn't let them knock me out. Too bad it wore off so fast."

"That's the pleasure of knife wounds", the demon wisely gave back, once more reminding Willow of what she had been doing before the two had met, "they look rather harmless, but hurt horribly."

"Indeed", the witch grimaced, glancing down on the sling which kept her from moving her wounded arm around too much; she wondered briefly how she was supposed to sleep with that thing, then shrugged it off, smiling slightly again when the woman beside her moved one hand to caress her hair tenderly.

"I'm sure it'll soon be better though", she added, not surprised at what her girlfriend replied, her protectiveness clearly kicking in once more. "Yup, and until then, you'll be a good little Wicca and stay here. No more nightly walks through Sunnydale until you're better."

"Yes boss", Willow teasingly gave back, giggling when the demon rolled her eye in reply; afterwards, the couple shared a tender kiss before they both decided it was time to get some sleep now, the redhead snuggling as close as possible to her loved one afterwards, soon drifting off into sleep, both of them slumbering through the night peacefully until the next morning dawned.

* * *

"So", Buffy stated early – too early for Pat's taste – in the next morning at the breakfast table, surprising everyone with how cheerful she appeared, "who wants to go to that church with me today and see how our dear Amy is doing?"

In response, the demon grumbled something unintelligible into her coffee, making Willow smile next to her – no matter how long they'd be dating, she briefly reflected, it'd never stop to amuse her how much of a morning grouch Pat was, barely able of proper communication until she'd had at least one cup of coffee and one of her beloved cigarettes.

"I assume that this translates to 'I will' in Pat-in-the-morning-language", Buffy now smirked, by now quite familiar with the demon's behaviour in the early morning as well, "anyone else?"

"I'll come along, as well", Giles stated after a moment of silence, "to take Willow's role and see if I can find anything interesting about her power centre. You said she wouldn't leave the altar even when the church was burning, Willow?"

"Yes", the redhead confirmed, "she just sat there and snapped at Pat to put the fire out, and got all grumpy when Pat said she couldn't do it and that we'd leave. She didn't try to stop us though."

"That's good to know", Giles gave back thoughtfully, making the witch nod while Pat grumbled into her coffee once more, rising from her seat afterwards and making her way to the front door, Willow quickly translating by telling the others that she was going for a smoke.

Excusing herself, she grasped her coffee cup with her healthy hand, then followed her girlfriend outside, finding her in the driveway, coffee cup in one hand and cigarette in the other, grumpily looking at the bushes growing close to the sidewalk since there wasn't much else to look at.

"You're cute when you're grumpy", Willow observed while she stepped up to her girlfriend, briefly regretting the fact that thanks to her wound and the fact that she had taken her coffee along, she had no hand free now touch her loved one, "when you're not grumpy with me, that is. Just your usual morning grumpiness."

She giggled when the only response was yet another grunt, then took a sip of her coffee, watching the taller woman in silence; oblivious to the admiring gaze, the demon just kept staring straight ahead in silence, taking a sip of her coffee and a drag of her cigarette every now and then.

"I'm hardly ever grumpy with you", she finally regained her ability to speak, after finishing the cigarette and throwing it on the sidewalk, turning to look at her loved one, even managing to smile slightly despite her still rather grumpy expression. "And I'm only grumpy with you when you deserve it for doing something reckless. Like walking around right now, when you should be in bed and rest."

"I'm fine", the witch reassured her in reply, gesturing at the sling afterwards, managing to do so without spilling any of her coffee, "I took a painkiller before eating breakfast, so it doesn't hurt. And I'm not feeling woozy or anything, I'm fine, really."

"Alright", the demon sighed after a moment, giving her another strict look afterwards, her voice stern when she spoke on, showing that she wouldn't accept any discussion about the topic she was bringing up. "But you won't come along when we go to check out the church. You'll stay here with the rest, preferably in bed."

"I won't come along", the redhead promised in reply, once more touched by the concern her loved one was showing for her, "promise. I'll just lock myself in the bedroom and try to find more information on all of this until you're back… Even though I have to admit, I'm not all too happy with the thought of you going there, either, not until you had the time to train and got used to…"

She trailed off, not sure how to end her sentence; with a slightly crooked smile, Pat gestured at the eye patch in reply, to Willow's relief not sounding bitter or annoyed when she finished the sentence for her. "Until I got used to having one eye less than I was born with? You saw me fight since that happened, you know I can do it, fighting's part of my nature. Catching knives with your body is not part of yours, unless you kept it from me."

"It's not", Willow had to admit, figuring that her loved one was right, "and I know that fighting's in your blood, what with you being a demon and everything, but still… I'm just worried about you, you know?"

"I know", the demon acknowledged, carefully putting an arm around her and pulling her closer to herself, "and I'll be careful, really. No need to worry. Everything will be just fine. And now, let's get you back into our bed."

"Yes mom", Willow sighed out in reply, giggling when Pat raised an eyebrow at her; shaking her head, the demon stole a quick kiss from her, then they made their way back into the house together, both of them successfully managing to push their worry about each other at least for the moment aside.


	8. Chapter 8

Another hour later, Buffy, Giles and Pat were ready to go; since they didn't know how dangerous it might be, the Watcher packed everyone's favoured weapons into a large duffel bag, having some trouble to get the axe the demon had chosen into it, but managing to do so at last, grimacing when he slung the bag over his shoulder and immediately felt its weight.

"Are you sure you want to carry that?" the black haired woman sceptically asked as she noticed the expression on his face; he nodded stubbornly, making her roll her eye in reply before she shrugged it off and looked at the Slayer, the unspoken question if they were ready to go answered with a curt nod from the smaller woman.

Without any other words necessary, the trio left the house and made their way to Giles' car, none of them feeling like walking; during the drive, they remained silent as well, the Watcher focusing on the road while Buffy and Pat both were looking out of the window, both of them deep in thought. "What will we be looking for once we're there?" the demon finally broke the silence, now focusing on the Slayer; shrugging, she turned in the passenger seat so she could look at the black haired woman and smiled slightly, clearly not troubled by that lack of knowledge.

"I'm quite sure we'll know it's important when we see it", she stated, ignoring the dismayed noise Giles let out next to her, "but for now, I'm more interested in finding out how many demons she still has there with her… We must have decreased them quite a bit already."

"Hopefully", Pat gave back, smiling briefly as she thought about how Buffy and she had lessened the number of Amy's cronies, "even though I doubt she's really feeling those losses. We are in Sunnydale, after all."

"Way to steal my happiness about that", the Slayer grumbled at her in reply, making her smile sheepishly before she shrugged, Giles stopping the car before she had a chance to reply anything.

"We should walk the rest of the way", the Watcher suggested, already killing the engine, "or she might notice us."

Once the other two had nodded their agreement, he looked around quickly to make sure no one was seeing them, then handed out their weapons; after they all had been armed, the three of them got out of the car and snuck towards the church, once more using the bushes which already had provided great cover for them when the gang had come here to get Willow and Pat back.

"Wow", Buffy whispered when her gaze fell on the crude shelter which had been erected where a church had stood not all too long ago, "that fire worked better than we had planned."

"Indeed", the demon had to admit next to her, "and this little hovel clearly shows why demons aren't meant to build stuff. I bet if you poke it, it'll just fall down again."

"Clearly, she survived the collapsing of the church though", Giles found it necessary to point out, "or they wouldn't have built that at all, but would have gone back to their lairs. It'd be good to know how many died when the building went down."

"Hopefully a lot of them", the black haired woman grumbled, making Buffy nod beside her – before the blonde came to her feet, giving her two companions a strict look.

"You wait here", she then ordered, "I'll go over there and see if I can spot anything. If you hear sounds of fighting, you can join in, but if everything remains quiet, just stay here, okay?"

"Okay", both Giles and Pat agreed, to the relief of the Slayer – she had been sure that at least the Watcher wouldn't question her, but hadn't been so convinced about the demon. She gave them a brief smile, then grasped her sword tighter before she started sneaking over to the sad, crooked hovel which had replaced the church; from their hiding place, both Pat and Giles watched her anxiously, waiting for the rather badly built looking door to fly open and for the demons to burst outside, both of them once more asking themselves what they might be looking for and if Buffy would be able to spot anything useful without getting caught.

To the clear relief of Giles – and slight dismay of Pat, since she had been looking forward to yet another fight, something she'd never admit to her friends though, not wanting to freak them out – Buffy managed to check the hovel out without anyone spotting her; when she finally came back, she looked puzzled, clearly confused by whatever she had seen, raising her finger to her lips though before any of her two companions could say anything.

With a few short, but pointed gestures, she made them get up as well, then led them back to the car; once they had put a safe distance between the church and themselves, she finally spoke up, looking at Giles as she did so, her words making Pat rise an eyebrow next to the Watcher. "The altar wasn't harmed much when the church fell in, but a little part of it seemed to be broken… and I could see some weird red light shining out of the hole. What is that, Giles?"

"Could be a number of things", the Watcher shrugged, to her dismay not giving her the clear answer she had been hoping for. "It surely is connected to the centre of her power, so we should find out what exactly it is and if it can be destroyed. Destroying it might weaken her significantly, even render her unable to gain use of her full strength, or… kill her."

"Good news then", Pat commented dryly, earning a brief look from the Watcher before he shrugged it off, telling himself that she was right – by now, he was quite sure that it would be next to impossible to get Amy somewhere where the exorcism could be tried, and after what both Willow and the demon had gone through due to her or due to her commands, it was understandable that Pat wanted her dead.

"Maybe Willow can work with that", the demon now added, distracting Giles from his ponderings, "she's already doing some research now, and that info about the weird red light might help her to worry it down."

"Hopefully", Buffy gave back while the trio reached the car, the Watcher unlocking it before they all climbed inside and made themselves comfortable, "we better get back home quickly so we can tell her."

"Yup", Pat agreed, leaning back into the seat and trying to arrange her legs in a comfortable way without kicking Giles in the back, "she'll be thrilled to hear it."

"For sure", Buffy smirked, then fell silent, prompting the demon to do the same; for the rest of the drive, they were quiet again, pondering what the Slayer had seen and what it might mean, wondering if this meant that finally, they'd have a way to beat Amy and keep her from doing any more harm than she already had.

* * *

"I think I can work with that", Willow stated a short time later, after Buffy had given her the best possible description of what she had seen through the cracks in the hovel's crude wall; at hearing this, Giles and Buffy looked relieved while Pat just smirked, not surprised to hear that.

"Can we help you with something?" the Watcher now demanded to know, giving the redhead a curious glance over the rim of his glasses. "More books from the shop maybe, or anything else…?"

"I think I have what I need here", the witch replied after thinking about this for a few moments, "I'll let you know in case I need anything else, alright?"

"Alright", Giles agreed, then got up from his seat on the edge of the bed Willow half sat, half laid in, letting the rest know that he'd go and do some research on his own; coming to her feet as well, Buffy stated that she'd come with him, briefly surprising him – before he realized that she only wanted to give the witch and the demon some private time, smiling slightly at her as they left the room together.

"Can I help you with something?" Pat demanded to know the moment the door had closed behind the blonde and the elder man, smiling when immediately, Willow nodded, then patted the mattress with her healthy hand, returning the smile her loved one was giving her.

"You can come here, and cuddle with me while I read stuff", she offered, "if that won't be too boring for you, that is."

"As if cuddling with you ever could be boring for me", Pat smirked, moving behind the redhead afterwards and carefully taking her into her arms; with a content sigh, Willow leaned into the embrace, placing the book she had chosen for her research on her lap and opening it once she had made herself comfortable.

For a while, there was silence afterwards, the redhead trying to focus on the book in her lap; the fact that shortly after embracing her though, her girlfriend had started caressing her stomach – keeping her hands away from the still healing cuts the fallen priest had inflicted on her – was distressing her greatly, making it hard for her to concentrate.

"I won't get far if you keep doing that", she finally stated, craning her neck so she could look at the taller woman behind her; smirking, the demon shrugged in reply, a twinkle in her good eye which showed that she already knew the answer to the question she asked in response. "Want me to stop?"

As a reply, the witch snapped the book close and threw it to the floor; with a glint similar to the one she could see in her girlfriend's eye filling her own gaze, she turned in the embrace until they were facing each other, a mischief smirk curling her lips while she replied. "You know I never want you to stop… Research can wait a bit."

"Wicked", Pat smirked, then pulled her close for a kiss; it started out rather innocent, but soon deepened and became much more passionate, all thoughts of research and what Buffy had seen at the sad remains of the church soon blown out of Willow's mind.

* * *

Quite some time later, Buffy was surprised to see Pat enter the living room, then raised an eyebrow at the dishevelled look of the demon; noticing the glance the Slayer was giving her, the taller woman cleared her throat before she ran both hands through her hair, trying to make it look a bit less tousled, without much success though.

"Giving Willow some time alone so she can do research, huh", the blonde teased, smirking when Pat just shrugged in reply, then let herself fall on the couch next to her, giving her a lopsided smile as well while she made herself comfortable.

"Yup. She won't get anything done as long as I'm around", she then freely admitted, making it Buffy's turn to clear her throat – even though she was well aware of the healthy sex life the couple was sharing, it still made her rather speechless when the demon referenced it so openly.

"Where's the rest?" Pat now changed the topic, to the Slayer's clear relief; she shrugged, then smiled, not sounding all too worried when she replied. "Giles went to the Magic Box to look up some books there, Xander and Anya went to the supermarket to refill our fridge and Dawn's staying at a friend's place for the night."

"Aren't you worried they might be attacked?" the demon demanded to know in reply, giving the blonde a curious glance; in response, Buffy shook her head, sounding slightly miffed as she answered. "Not really… I doubt Amy has much interest in them. She's after Willow, you, and me."

"How comforting", Pat dryly replied, smirking when Buffy giggled in response; the two grinned at each other for a moment, then the demon gestured at the door leading into the cellar, her next words causing the Slayer to give her a slightly surprised look. "So… If you're not really doing anything else important right now, why don't we go downstairs and train a bit?"

"Sure", Buffy agreed after a moment, wondering where this idea had come from all of a sudden – after all, no training had happened since that mess with Amy had started, and so far, she had assumed that the demon simply wanted to preserve her strength for the real battles they'd face sooner or later.

"I hate to admit it", Pat sighed while they rose from the couch together and made their way downstairs, into the room Buffy had turned into a training room, "but I really need to do some work on the whole depth perception thing… or the lack of it. If a demon ever decides to jump me from the left, I'll be fu—screwed."

"Nice save there", Buffy commented in reply, smirking at the look Pat gave her, "Willow's constant reminders to use proper language are finally taking effect, huh?"

"Seems so", the demon had to admit grudgingly, making Buffy giggle once more – before she grew serious again, returning to the topic Pat had brought up when they had come down here. "It's a smart thing to do though, you really need to get used to this… I can't imagine how hard that has to be."

"I'm getting used to it", the demon shrugged in reply, "I'm just glad I'm not throwing stuff over all the time. But, as I said, any attacks from my left might end badly. For me."

"Well, I can attack you from there during training, but I'm not sure it'd make sense, seeing that you'd know I'm coming", Buffy mused in reply, giving the demon a thoughtful look. "Now, if we could get in a second opponent…"

"Whom are we talking about?" the black haired woman demanded to know in reply; she grimaced at what Buffy suggested as an answer, but then nodded, knowing that it was necessary if she wanted to be at her best during the fights they surely would end up in again sooner or later – she had done pretty good so far, as both she and the Slayer knew, but she still was far from the form she had been in before the priest had ruined her eye.

"I'll go get him", Buffy stated as soon as the demon had agreed, making her nod once more; making herself comfortable on one of the training mats, she lit up a cigarette while the blonde left, sighing to herself as she waited for the Slayer to come back, fingering the eye patch from time to time, once more cursing the priest for doing this to her.


	9. Chapter 9

An hour later, Willow finally decided that she had had done enough research for now and made her way downstairs; she had found several interesting facts in her books, but none of them definite enough to make her sure she had dug up the right information, the witch making a mental note to herself that she'd talk about what she had found with Giles while she moved down the stairs, stopping dead in her tracks moments later as she reached the living room and found herself faced with a rather unexpected and peculiar sight.

On the couch, Pat was sitting, holding a handkerchief to her nose and looking grumpy; next to her, the Slayer had made herself comfortable, and against the wall opposite of them, Spike was leaning, his arms crossed over his chest and a smug look on his face.

"What happened?" Willow finally dared to ask, even though she wasn't really sure she wanted to know; looking at her, her girlfriend sighed, removing the handkerchief from her nose before she replied, sounding more annoyed than anything else about the events she explained. "We trained, and Spike gave me a good one."

"A few good ones, and bloody good ones, too", the vampire found it necessary to correct her, ignoring the angered look he received from the demon in reply; immediately worried, Willow hurried to her loved one's side, wincing at the sight of her bloodied nose and the bruise which was forming around her good eye.

"Why did you train with him, of all people?" she demanded to know as soon as she had reassured herself that no serious harm had been done to her girlfriend, giving Spike a poisonous look, "why not with Buffy?"

"I trained with both of them", Pat gave them, quickly explaining the reason for her need of two sparring partners; once she had gotten done, Willow shook her head, then gave her a scolding look, clearly forgetting about her girlfriend's regenerative abilities in her demonic form. "That still was a reckless thing to do. What if he'd really hurt you?"

"Then I would have healed it", Pat pointed out in reply, both Willow and her looking at Spike again when the vampire found it necessary to make another comment. "Unless I would've taken your other eye. The healing didn't go so well with that, did it?"

"Don't joke about that", the demon replied flatly, giving him a glare, clearly not impressing him much though; he just smirked at her again, then moved away from the wall, holding his hand out demandingly.

"Pay time", he declared, the demon grumbling something unintelligible to herself before she removed her cigarettes from her pocket and threw them at the vampire, her annoyance only growing when he caught it easily.

"Whenever you feel up to another little training session, tell me", Spike stated, giving her another smug smile and nearly making her seethe with anger; he chuckled to himself, then marched out, leaving an enraged Pat and a worried Willow behind – by now, the demon knew Spike well enough to not let his comments get to her, and it was unusual that she'd react to him like this.

Before she had the chance to say something though, her loved one rose from her seat abruptly and made her way to the cellar door, the sounds of her thumping down the stairs following her disappearance seconds later; now seriously worried, Willow wanted to get up as well and follow her, only to slump back on the couch when Buffy grasped her arm and shook her head, her voice sincere as she spoke up. "Don't. Wait a bit."

"But…" the witch started to protest, only to fall silent when Buffy shook her head once more, giving her a serious look afterwards.

"Trust me on this", the Slayer almost pleaded, "and just give her ten minutes. If you go after her now, it won't do any good."

"Fine", Willow grudgingly gave in after a moment or two, figuring that Buffy knew what she was talking about – like the Slayer, Pat was a fighter, and the witch knew both of them long enough by now to be aware of the fact that sometimes, fighters just ticked differently. Thus, she made herself as comfortable as possible in her worried state, waiting for the ten minutes Buffy had suggested to tick by; at last, they were over, after what had seemed more like ten hours, the Slayer nodding when the redhead threw her a questioning glance, the expression in her green eyes quickly turning into gratitude at the blonde's approval.

Eager to join her girlfriend and maybe give her some comfort, should it be needed, Willow rose from the couch and made her way to the cellar door; already from there, she could hear the sounds of fists mercilessly maltreating the sandbag Giles had put up down there a while ago, her heart filling with worry once more as she opened the door and moved down the stairs, suddenly afraid of the state she might find her loved one in.

* * *

For once, Pat didn't hear her girlfriend approach, as she was too busy with repeatedly punching the sandbag, so hard that the smacks of her fists on the bag drowned out Willow's footsteps as the witch approached her, the redhead stopping at a safe distance and just watching her girlfriend, her concern only growing when she saw the ferocity with which Pat attacked the training utensil.

Finally, the speed of her punches slowed down, and she noticed her girlfriend standing behind her; after giving the sandbag one last ferocious hit, she turned around to face Willow, panting slightly, sweat glistening on her brow. Wordlessly, not needing to ask her if she was alright since it was clearly visible that she wasn't, the witch moved closer to her loved one, hesitating another moment before she took her into her arms; for a few seconds, she felt the taller woman stiffen, relief flooding her when finally though, Pat returned the embrace, a shuddery breath escaping her.

"Don't let him get to you so much", Willow mumbled soothingly, rubbing her back and hoping that this would give her the comfort she clearly needed, "you know how he is… Upsetting people is how he gets his kicks, now that he can't hurt anyone anymore."

"I know", the demon muttered after a moment of silence, "but, well… He did hit a weak spot, as much as I hate to admit it…"

"I know", the witch repeated the words her loved one had used seconds ago, "and I understand… But just try to ignore him in the future, alright? And I'm not sure I like the idea of the two of you fighting, he can hurt you, you know…"

"I noticed", Pat replied dryly, Willow giving her a smile in response before she reached up to run her fingers over the eye patch gingerly, glad when the taller woman didn't pull back from the touch.

"I promise I'll work something out about this after we got rid of Amy", she promised, making the demon nod; they kept holding each other close for a bit longer, then Pat finally pulled back, to the witch's relief looking much more relaxed and less troubled now.

"We better get back upstairs", she stated, with a slight smirk appearing as she went on, "or Buffy will think we're doing the naughty down here."

"Ack, no", the redhead shuddered in reply, hurriedly explaining herself at the surprised look the black haired woman was giving her in response, "too cold down here, and too dirty. That wouldn't be fun."

"Plus Buffy might walk in on us", Pat pointed out, making the witch shudder; smiling, the demon took the time to steal a brief kiss from her loved one, then the couple made their way back upstairs, the Slayer looking clearly relieved when they came out of the cellar together, glad to see that the bit of exercise, followed by Willow's presence, had helped to calm the demon down – even though she had good control over her fiery nature most of the time, it wouldn't have been the first time that she'd set something on fire when angered or upset.

"Everything alright?" she still asked, smiling when both Willow and Pat nodded; afterwards, the black haired woman excused herself and left to have a cigarette, the redhead making herself comfortable on the couch next to the Slayer, the small sigh which escaped her causing the blonde to give her a worried look.

"I'm quite sure she's still bottling it up", Willow explained when she noticed the questioning glance of her best friend, "you know, she hasn't talked about… well, about losing her eye, not at all… It's as if she's pretending everything's just fine, and I don't like it."

"Well, she did admit that she's having a harder time with fighting than usual", Buffy gave back, shrugging at the look Willow gave her in reply. "What? That's a start, isn't it? Plus, don't forget, she's a demon, they don't tend to feel about such things the way we do."

"But she got upset about the stuff Spike said to her", Willow pointed out, annoyed when the Slayer shrugged in reply.

"_Everyone_ gets annoyed about the stuff Spike says", she stated at the glance Willow was giving her, "he just knows how to push people's buttons. Even the buttons of people who are more than two hundred years old."

"I hope you're right", the redhead sighed out after considering this for a moment, "I don't want her to keep that inside all the time if it bothers her and then go all kablooey or something."

"I doubt that'll happen", Buffy reassured her, giving her a hopefully calming smile afterwards. "Just don't try to push her", she added, demonstrating surprising insight as she continued. "If she wants to talk, she'll talk. If not, you'll only make her bottle it up more when you try to push it."

"You're right", the witch sighed out at last, "thanks… I guess I'm lucky that my best friend ticks similarly like my girlfriend when it comes to such stuff, I can always ask you for advice."

"Always", the Slayer promised in reply, briefly touching her arm; Willow gave her a smile, then got up from the couch and let her best friend know she'd hit the books again, making the Slayer nod before she grabbed the remote and switched on the TV, eager to get some distraction before everyone would be back and the house would be crowded once more.

* * *

To her dismay, she didn't get much of the distraction she'd desired so much; shortly after she had switched on the TV, Xander and Anya came back, loaded with shopping bags – and both of them looking rather dishevelled, making it clear to her why it had taken them so long to get the food and drinks for all of them from the supermarket.

"We went to Xander's home and had sex", Anya freely confessed when she noticed the expression on Buffy's face, making the blonde shake her head while Xander winced – no matter how often he told her, she just didn't seem to be able to keep her mouth shut about such topics.

"What?" the ex-demon now demanded to know, putting down the bags so she could cross her arms over her chest and give her boyfriend an annoyed look. "I'm sure Buffy understands", she went on, "we can't have proper sex on that couch and she gave the big bedroom to Willow and Pat. Which is so unfair."

"Maybe the two of them will trade with you", the Slayer offered, "so you won't have to sneak out to… be private. That might be dangerous right now, you know."

"Pat said the same, outside", Anya admitted, "oh and what happened to her eye? It's all bruisy and painful."

"Spike hit her", Buffy sighed, quickly explaining what had happened when both Anya and Xander gave her a shocked look in reply, both of them shaking their heads once she had gotten done.

"Getting _Spike_ to train with her?" Xander then exclaimed, throwing the Slayer a disbelieving look. "That wasn't one of your better ideas, Buffy. Why not ask Giles or me?"

"Because it doesn't matter if she hurts him", the blonde shrugged in reply, "and even if Spike hurts her more seriously, she can heal it. Unless he pokes out her other eye, but don't say that in front of her."

The last words were accompanied by a pointed look towards Anya; the ex-demon shrugged it off, clearly not bothered, then picked up her share of the shopping bags again, asking Xander to follow her into the kitchen, her boyfriend obeying her willingly enough and allowing Buffy to focus on the TV again – for another two minutes, then Pat came back inside, obviously having smoked enough.

"Something interesting on?" she asked while she moved over to the couch and let herself fall on it, propping her feet up on the table – and putting them back down on the carpet the instant Buffy raised an eyebrow, clearing her throat in embarrassment, glad when the Slayer simply answered her question a moment later, without reprimanding her about putting her feet on the table. "Not really… I just wanted to enjoy some peace and quiet before everyone came back."

"And peace and quiet means watching TV?" Pat smirked, chuckling when the blonde nodded; she shook her head to herself, then jumped when a horribly loud crash came from the kitchen, both Buffy and her coming to their feet immediately – when Anya called out, her words causing both of them to slump back into the couch, surprisingly alike expressions of annoyance on their faces. "Sorry! Xander dropped the glass of mixed pickles."

"Hope it broke", the demon muttered to herself, making Buffy giggle; the two grinned at each other, then both focused on the TV again, Anya and Xander soon joining them, all of them enjoying the brief time of relaxation they had until Giles came back as well, making the gang complete once more.


	10. Chapter 10

"So", the Watcher asked as they all had sat down to eat dinner, prepared by Anya and Xander – without breaking anything this time -, his gaze focusing on Willow, "did you find anything?"

"A few things", the witch gave back, shovelling a forkful of noodles with cheese sauce into her mouth and taking the time to chew and swallow before she went on. "It could be either some sort of talisman, helping her to channel the power, or some kind of chasm, hidden by the altar, which would mean not the altar is her power centre, but the chasm or talisman. And of course it could also be the knife that crazy priest used to cut me, in which case it wouldn't be that important."

"Let's hope it is the knife then", Pat commented next to her, throwing her a brief glance before she spoke on. "I'd like to use that on Amy and show her how she made my poor girlfriend feel."

"Sometimes, I forget you're a demon, but then you say something like this and I'm horribly harshly reminded of it", Giles dryly stated, making the demon shrug before she focused on her food again, only to glance up a moment later when Buffy spoke up. "So, how can we use this to stop her?"

"If it's a talisman, breaking it might destroy her ability to charge up her energies", Willow replied, now sounding slightly proud about figuring all of it out with the help of her books. "If it's a chasm, well, then we'd have to push her into it… It'd cause an overload of power on her brain, and that would lead to the famous brain leakage. If it's the knife, it's of no use."

"Let's hope it's not the knife then", Pat corrected herself, making the rest smirk before Giles took off his glasses and started cleaning them, clearing his throat, sounding serious when he spoke up. "We should come up with a plan then how to find out what exactly caused that reddish shine and then act accordingly."

"Well, I suggest we go there during the day", Xander gave back, "so the vamps will be asleep and we'll just have to deal with the demons. Which might end up being hard enough, if there are too many of them."

"Good idea", Buffy agreed, to the young man's obvious pride, "but we need a new strategy, just burning the hovel they built won't help this time, plus it'd be too dangerous if we need to get in there, as well. Any ideas?"

"Just storm in?" Pat suggested in reply, shrugging at the disbelieving look, a gesture she repeated at what the Slayer demanded to know next. "You've been an assassin for two centuries and all you can think of is just storming in?"

"Well, during my assassin days, I usually used a more… subtle approach", the demon pointed out, throwing an apologetic glance at Willow as she thought about how she had used exactly that approach on her, before her act had turned into something real. "But I doubt that would work on Amy."

"Plus, I wouldn't let you do that", the redhead stated, not letting it show if the memories her girlfriend's words had brought up were hurting her. "I could make that hovel fall apart with magic", she added after a moment, "that would cause some confusion and would make it easier for us to get to the altar. Then we destroy it, and then we'll know what it is."

"Okay, that's a start", Buffy nodded her agreement; once more, she recalled the exact layout of the hovel and of the area around it, a small smile forming on her face as she came up with an idea, explaining it to the others once it had shaped up enough, glad when quickly, they reached an agreement about how it would be done.

* * *

In the next day, they strengthened themselves with a hearty breakfast, then went through their plan once more before they left the house and made their way to the sad remains of the church; Buffy, Xander, Pat and Giles had armed themselves with swords and axes while Anya and Willow were unarmed, the witch relying on her magic and the ex-demon not all too interested in getting too close to the fight.

"I'll cheer to you from the sidelines", she stated when Pat asked her about her lack of weaponry, making the demon roll her good eye in response; shuddering, Anya pointed out that this looked rather creepy, earning a glare from the black haired woman, Willow stepping in though before the situation could get any worse, fuelled by some remark the demon might make in reply.

"I'm sure Anya's cheering will help a lot", the witch stated good-naturedly, making her girlfriend look at her; if a snarky remark came to her mind, she held it back, something Willow had been counting on – no matter how dry and snarky the taller woman sometimes was with their friends, she never spoke that way to her, and thus it had been the perfect way to end an argument before it could even start.

"Once I made the hovel fall apart, I'll keep an eye on her", she went on, "and help you guys with a few spells, should it be necessary."

"We'll do fine", Buffy threw in, "but it's good to know that a powerful witch has our backs covered."

"I agree", the demon smirked, bending down to kiss her loved one briefly, then gestured at the arm she still had in a sling, sounding slightly concerned again when she spoke on. "Promise though you won't overdo it… You'll stop the moment this starts to hurt, alright?"

"Alright", the redhead immediately agreed, touched by the demon's concern for her – after all, they were about to enter a fight which was a matter of life and death, and still all she did was worry about her, instead of being concerned about her own health. "You be careful, too", she thus stated, using her healthy hand to grasp her girlfriend's and squeeze it tenderly, "and be mindful of your left…"

"Sure", the demon reassured her, the couple sharing another kiss afterwards; this inspired Anya to claim kisses from Xander as well, a wish the young man gladly fulfilled, briefly making Buffy melancholic about the fact that she had no one she could share kisses with – before she shrugged it off, telling herself she'd have all the time in the world to find someone for that purpose as soon as the fight was over and they had won once more.

* * *

"Alright", Willow whispered as soon as they were close enough to the hovel so she could tear it down, hiding in the bushes once more, "I'll do it now…"

She took in a deep breath, smiling slightly when she felt Pat's hand on her shoulder moments later, the tender touch making concentrating much easier for her, instead of distracting her from the task at hand. Slowly, she rose her healthy hand, her brow furrowing as she focused; she mumbled a few words beneath her breath, then clenched her hand into a fist briefly, the hovel trembling suspiciously – before she flung her fingers at it, a gasp coming from the redhead as she felt the power surge through her arm, the hovel falling apart seconds later, charred, wooden beams and stones hitting the ground and startling the demons which had been guarding Amy.

Amy herself laid on the altar, as always, abruptly sitting up when her shelter was blown apart; her eyes went wide as she saw Buffy, Giles, Xander and Pat came storming toward her, Willow and Anya staying behind, the attacking quartet armed with dangerously sharp and pointy looking weapons.

"Get them!" she shrieked, close to hysteria, cursing them while her demons quickly regained their composure, howling and growling as they charged as well. Seconds later, a ferocious fight had erupted, the Slayer and her three pesky helpers annoying Amy by even going into battle formation, standing back to back so no one could sneak up on them, fending off the demons coming at them with surprising ease, something which probably was powered by the fact that none of them dared to get too close to the demon of the group, her flaming fists keeping the attackers from storming at her too rashly.

Growling, Amy watched how her demons fell, one after the other; each death fuelled her strength, the red glow visible through the crack in her altar pulsating much brighter each time one of her demons died and gave her a fresh surge of energy. Part of her knew that despite that wonderful, satiable energy, she should wait until she was stronger, and not use her power too quickly; still her anger was burning too bright to let her listen to that rational part, her eyes narrowing as she focused on Willow, the redhead standing next to the tactless ex-demon, watching the fight, even having the insolence of smiling to herself as she was focused on her girlfriend taking down her demons.

"You", Amy growled, low enough so nobody could hear her, "always you…!" With her anger so big now that it almost made her explode, she rose one hand, the smell of brimstone filling the air as she clenched her fist; moments later, she heard Willow yelp as the witch was lifted off her feet, then swept towards her, struggling helplessly against the magical grip she had on her.

"Willow!" Amy heard the traitorous demon shout, but her own minions kept the Slayer's pet demon from doing anything; she couldn't even focus properly on what was happening to her girlfriend as she had to concentrate on the opponents in front of her, the two who had gone up against her sensing that they had to keep her from interfering and attacking with much more courage, eager to win the favour of their mistress.

"You", Amy repeated once Willow was hovering in front of her, still struggling feebly against the hold the possessed woman was having on her, "you've always been messing up my plans… Used me to meet Rack and then just dropped me when you found out you couldn't handle it after all… And still it all always came so easy to you! But now, I'm the stronger one, I'm having powers within me you can't even imagine…"

She narrowed her eyes, and the redhead began to gasp and choke as her flow of air was cut off all of a sudden; fighting down the impulse to panic, Willow briefly squeezed her eyes shut, giving her best to concentrate once more as she focused on the altar Amy was sitting on, recalling the spell she had used to make the hovel fall apart. Even though her windpipe felt as if it had the diameter of a needle eye, she managed to suck in enough breath to press out the words for the spell; since the altar was much smaller than the hovel had been, the altar didn't just fall apart, but practically exploded, sending Amy to the ground, breaking her concentration and thus the hold she had on Willow, the witch slumping to the stony floor next to her, coughing and gasping for breath.

Again, she heard Pat call out her name, briefly looking over her shoulder, only to see that her loved one was still too busy fighting off the demons around her to come to her aid; then, the now brightly pulsing red glow caught her eye, and she focused on it, her heart performing an excited leap in her chest when she saw that she had found the right information during her research, all of a sudden knowing how she could end this once and for all – before Amy shrieked next to her and grabbed her, jerking her to her feet, then lifting her up in the air, glaring up at her as she held her, the chasm which was the true centre of her power right behind her.

* * *

With an angered growl, Pat finished off the last two demons in front of her with powerful swings of her axe, finally finding herself free to come to Willow's aid; next to her and behind her, the others got rid of their opponents as well, giving them some time to catch their breath, Xander wiping sweat of his brow and looking briefly relieved – before he noticed the situation Willow was in, his eyes going wide as he called out her name. The sound made Buffy and Giles look as well, the two of them reacting with startled gasps as they saw the witch duelling with Amy, sparks of magic colouring the air around them while the redhead clearly tried to drive her opponent back, towards the gaping gorge behind her; if Amy was aware of what Willow was trying to do, she didn't let it distract her, standing her ground and countering the spells the redhead was throwing at her.

"We have to stop that", Pat stated, dropping her axe, "before she overdoes herself and breaks down!" She didn't even wait to see what the rest thought of this, but rushed forward a second after she had stopped speaking; since her girlfriend stood with her back to her, she didn't see her coming, but Amy did, briefly letting her concentration on Willow slip so she could fling a spell at the demon, a brightly glowing orb of energy hitting her in the chest and sending her backwards a few feet before she fell to the ground with a low "Ooff", Buffy hurrying to her side moments later.

"Leave her alone!" Willow snapped at her opponent, anger filling her, "haven't you and your priest done enough to her already?"

She threw another spell at the possessed woman, putting all her anger and pain about what her loved one had been forced to go through so far in it; and moments later, Amy stumbled back, losing her balance as one of her feet slipped at the chasm's edge, her arms flailing wildly as she tried to keep herself from falling.

Already, the redhead started to smile, knowing that it would take just the tiniest push now to send her over the edge, into the gorge and to her end; she rose her hand to provide just that, her eyes widening when moments later, one of Amy's hands grabbed her wrist, a malicious little smirk appearing on the woman's face, her voice down to a whisper, but dripping with venom as she spoke up. "Even if I'll go now, I'll take you with me. Say goodbye."

Behind her, Willow heard Pat shout her name, but couldn't allow herself to pay any attention, her mind running wild; she knew that, with her wounded arm, she couldn't try to push Amy away from herself, that if she'd let herself fall back now, she wouldn't only safe herself, but would keep Amy from falling as well, would endanger her friends and, in the end, the whole world, should the possessed woman reach her full strength – and how close she was to that was out of question, seeing how their magical duel apparently hadn't taken any of her energy away.

All at once, she made her choice, realizing that it was the only thing she could do; and now, she did turn her head to look at her loved one, her gaze a silent apology – before she threw her whole weight forward, against the clearly startled Amy, causing her opponent to stumble back that last two steps which were needed to push her over the edge.


	11. Chapter 11

The moment Willow had looked at her, Pat had known what she intended to do, and horror flooded her, blending out each rational thought; she shouted her lover's name again as she came to her feet, her terror clearly audible through her voice, not even noticing how Buffy grabbed her arm and kept her from rushing at Willow and Amy.

"No!" the demon screamed as she helplessly had to watch how her girlfriend didn't do the only thing which might safe her, didn't move back, but threw herself forward instead, against the woman she had been battling seconds ago; for a moment, they seemed to embrace, teetering on the edge, Amy clearly struggling to keep herself from falling while Willow turned her head once more to look at her – and _smiling_ at her, an apologetic, loving smile.

"No!" Pat shouted again, now struggling against the hold Buffy was having on her, only prompting the Slayer to grab her other arm as well, then wrap her arms around her, keeping her from rushing at the two, "Willow, _no_! Don't!"

For another moment, her gaze held the one of her lover, giving her the chance to notice how eerily calm Willow seemed to be – and then Amy lost her footing and they fell, together, vanishing in the chasm the altar had hidden from them for so long. In perfect unison, Xander and Giles cried out the witch's name while, in wordless terror, Pat only increased her struggles against Buffy's hold; then, she finally snapped at the Slayer to let go of her, Buffy only shaking her head, not even looking at her, her gaze fixed on the gorge her best friend just had fallen into as she had sacrificed herself for all of them, taking Amy with her and ending the danger the possessed woman had been to them and to the world.

"Let go!" the demon yelled again, "let me go, I need to go after her!"

"No", the blonde brought out, tightening her grip on the demon, using all her Slayer strength to keep her from breaking free, her arms wrapped tightly around the taller woman's chest, her own terror at what she just had seen only growing at what she had to say next. "She's gone, there's nothing you can do… She's gone…"

"No", the black haired woman snapped, with a sound in her voice Buffy only had heard once before, years ago, when they had been in the hospital after an attack on the witch. "No, she can't be, let me go, I'll go and get her…"

In response, the Slayer merely kept her tight grip on the demon, shaking her head; letting out a strange, strangled noise, Pat kept trying to get out of her hold, something Buffy knew she couldn't allow, not if she didn't want the demon to jump right after her loved one and be gone as well. Thus, she kept holding her back, at first; then, as the realization of what had happened fully sank in, she just held her when she went down to her knees with disbelief in her gaze now, Buffy going down with her, still holding her, closing her eyes when she felt a shudder run through the demon's body.

"No", she heard the black haired woman whisper, her voice cracking, "no, this… no. No. No."

She trembled again, taking in a deep, watery breath; and then, she let out an unarticulated, agonized howl as she fell apart, slumped into Buffy's embrace, suddenly clinging to the Slayer, so tight that it hurt. Squeezing her eyes shut, the blonde just kept holding her, tightening her embrace when a rough sob freed itself from Pat's throat; and when the demon in her arms began to cry, she did the same, their tears mixing as they dripped to the floor, their sobs echoing through the quiet morning as they clung to each other now, still not able to cope with what they just had been forced to see.

* * *

It had taken them a long time to stop crying, all of them, even Anya shedding tears as she sat next to her boyfriend and let him hold her, giving comfort as well as receiving it; and after the tears finally had stopped flowing, they still all felt as if someone had torn out their hearts, no one of them able to look away from the chasm which had swallowed both Willow and Amy not all too long ago. The red light which had been pulsating within it was gone, the gouge as dark as it could be; the victory tasted like ashes to them though, having been gained by such a great loss.

"She shouldn't have…", Pat started, then fell silent again as her voice cracked once more, just shaking her head as she stared at the hole her girlfriend had thrown herself into so she could save her friends and the world, a world which was and would be oblivious to the sacrifice the witch had made.

"This can't be real", the demon now brought out, looking at Buffy so pleadingly that it broke the blonde's heart. "Please tell me this isn't real… This has to be a nightmare… Please…"

In response, Buffy just kept holding her gaze, not bringing herself to telling her how real this was, but not able to lie to her, either; the demon kept staring back at her for a few more moments, then looked back at the chasm again, her face working as she fought against the fresh tears which wanted to well up in her good eye.

"She can't be gone", she stammered in a trembling, tiny voice, "she just can't be…"

"I'm so sorry", Buffy whispered in response, once more moving closer to the taller woman and hugging her, not surprised when the embrace wasn't returned. "I wish I could have done something…"

"I need to get out of here", Pat suddenly gave back, coming to her feet so unexpectedly and roughly that she nearly made the Slayer fall over, "I need… I can't breathe… I can't…"

Before Buffy had the chance to get up and grab her again, Anya had done just that, almost springing to her feet and rushing to the demon, pulling her into yet another tight embrace; she held her for almost a minute, rubbing her back soothingly and whispering into her ear, words Buffy couldn't hear from her position, before she made the taller woman turn her back on the chasm and led her away from the ruins of the church and the hovel which had been built from its remains. Still shocked by what they had witnessed, the rest followed her numbly; and somehow, they made it back to the house, even though none of them knew how when they arrived there, all of them still struggling with the awful truth that Willow was gone.

* * *

Once back at the house, Pat immediately made her way upstairs, without saying a word to anyone; the rest exchanged worried glances, then Buffy muttered something about checking on her, pushing her own grief aside as she followed the demon while the others all took a seat in the living room, just sitting there in silence, staring into nothingness as the horrible memories of Willow falling to her certain death along with Amy replayed again and again in their minds.

Upstairs, Buffy wasn't surprised to find Pat in the big bedroom, the black haired woman standing at the window and staring outside; not sure what to say or to do, the Slayer moved up to her and stood next to her in silence, the taller woman breaking it after a few minutes had ticked by. "It's so unreal, you know…"

"I know", the blonde gave back, hesitating for a moment before she reached out and placed a tender hand on the other woman's arm. "And I know it hurts… I just wish I could have done something…"

"Me too", Pat replied hoarsely, taking in a deep, shuddery breath before she went on. "And I wish I could have told her how much she meant to me…"

"She knew", Buffy reassured the demon in reply, a tiny bit glad that she knew what to say now. "She knew every time you looked at her or touched her…"

"I don't know what to do", the taller woman brought out after a few moments of silence, sounding so desperate that it broke Buffy's heart. "I don't know how to deal with this… She was my life, and now she's gone…"

She fell silent, looking at the Slayer helplessly; all the blonde could think of was embracing her again, closing her eyes to hold back her own tears when the demon returned the hug, almost clinging to her, another shuddery breath coming from her as she tried to accept the unacceptable.

* * *

"Can't we bring her back?" Anya demanded to know at the same time, looking at Giles expectantly, wringing her hands nervously. "We brought back Buffy, can't we do it with Willow, too?"

"I don't know", Giles gave back, taking off his glasses and beginning to clean them, "I don't think so…"

"Why not?" Xander wanted to know, sounding as if he either was close to tears or close to slipping into a hysterical fit, "it worked with Buffy, as Anya said, why can't we do it with her, too?"

"The urn was destroyed", the Watcher reminded him in reply, "and it was her who did the spell, together with Tara… So…"

"This can't be true", Xander shook his head, running both hands through his hair before he got up and started pacing the room. "This can't be… She can't be just gone. It's Willow! How can Willow be just gone?"

"Xander…" Giles started, only to be interrupted when the young man shot him a glare, his expression a mix of anger and sadness, the same conflicting emotions showing through his voice when he went on. "No! Why didn't we do anything? Why did we just watch? We didn't do anything and now she's gone… she can't be…"

He fell silent, giving the elder man a helpless look – before he fell back into his seat, burying his face in his hands, Anya carefully putting an arm around him.

"Can't we at least look if it's possible?" she asked after a few moments of silence, only broken by the ragged breaths her boyfriend was letting out, her gaze focusing on the Watcher again. "In your books, and if there is something, we can try…"

"I'll have a look", Giles gave back, putting his glasses back on and giving the ex-demon a distraught look. "Believe me, I want her back, too", he went on, for the first time letting his emotions show as his voice trembled, "but we shouldn't get our hopes up too high…"

"Just look it up", Xander muttered in reply, then got up from the couch and out of his girlfriend's embrace, walking out of the living room, the sound of the front door falling close following a few seconds later. Letting out a small sigh, Anya got up and followed him, leaving Giles behind alone; helplessly, all he could do was stay where he was, staring down on his hands as he thought about what had happened and asked himself if maybe, Anya had been right and there would be a way to bring Willow back.


	12. Chapter 12

"What are you doing?" Buffy asked several hours later, when it had gotten dark outside, looking from the softly crying Dawn on the couch to Pat as the demon came thumping down the stairs, axe in hand and several stakes tucked into her belt. During the last few hours, she had been hiding away in the bedroom, with Buffy giving her the privacy she needed, the Slayer busy dealing with Dawn after her sister had come back home from her friends' place and she had been told to force her what had happened to Willow.

Xander and Anya had left, returning to their own home now that the threat Amy had posed had been dealt with, and Giles was gone as well; Buffy had been rather distraught about all of them leaving, but at least, it had made dealing with Dawn a bit easier, since it only had been the two of them when she had told her sister the awful news and had tried to give some comfort afterwards.

"Going on patrol", Pat now muttered, the Slayer giving her a disbelieving look in reply and making her shrug before she spoke on, the flat sound of her voice only making Dawn cry harder next to her older sister. "Now with Amy gone, there'll be the usual number of vampires and demons roaming the streets, so…"

"I'm not sure this is a good idea", Buffy slowly gave back, trying to figure out how to go on so she'd bring her point across.

"You want to go on patrol, after what happened with Willow?" Dawn threw in, now sounding not just saddened anymore, but outraged as well, the fury in her voice making the demon look at her. "How can you think of something like that when she's dead not even for a day? Who cares if there are vampires out there? Your girlfriend died!"

"Dawn", Buffy tried to stop her, the teenager looking at her in response, making her nearly flinch back at the anger she saw in her eyes. "What? It's true, isn't it! You didn't think about patrol, but she does? This is… Do you even care she's gone?"

With the last words, she glared at the demon again, only to have her anger puff away into nothingness when she saw the expression on Pat's face, the pure agony showing through her features and her gaze.

"I can't just sit around here and wait for time to go by", the demon now made herself say, the tremble in her voice clenching Dawn's heart up and making her regret the things she had said just seconds ago. "I'll just… dunno, go crazy if I do…"

"I'm sorry", Dawn gave back, all anger gone from her voice now, just deep sadness remaining, "I shouldn't have… said that…"

In reply, Pat just shrugged, then told her not to be bothered about it – before she continued towards the door without another word, Buffy shaking her head silently at the look Dawn was giving her.

"If that's how she decided to deal, it's fine", the Slayer stated as soon as the door had fallen close behind the demon, "you know she's hard to kill, she'll be alright."

"Unless she lets them kill her on purpose", the teenager found it necessary to point out, to Buffy's obvious dismay; she thought about this for a moment, then shook her head, trying to convince herself as much as Dawn with what she replied. "No, she won't do that… She knows Willow wouldn't want her to…"

"Hope you're right", her sister muttered in reply, then got up from her seat on the couch and let the Slayer know she'd go to her room; knowing that the teenager needed some time alone now to deal with what had happened, Buffy just nodded, giving her a weak smile, not surprised when it wasn't returned.

Letting herself sink back into the couch, she watched her younger sister make her way upstairs, silence settling over the house as soon as the young girl had reached her room and had closed the door behind herself. For a while, Buffy just remained where she was, staring into nothingness, thinking of Willow and of what had happened to her; despite her overwhelming grief and pain though, a small voice kept nagging at her from the back of her mind, bringing Dawn's concern about the well-being of Pat up again and again, no matter how hard she tried to ignore it.

* * *

An hour later, Buffy finally gave up, knowing she wouldn't find peace – as much as she could find, anyway, with Willow gone – until she'd gone out to make sure that Dawn had been wrong about possible suicidal tendencies of their friend; she wrote a quick note to her sister, not wanting to disturb her, then armed herself with a dagger and a few stakes, just to be on the safe side, the sense of having a purpose which filled her as she left the house to her relief pushing a bit of her grief aside.

Deep inside, she knew that she hadn't fully realized yet what had happened, that she hadn't really accepted her best friend's fate yet; the breakdown would come sooner or later, but until then, she could at least make sure that the woman said best friend had loved would be fine, telling herself that she owed it to Willow. As always when she had been on patrol before, her steps led her to the cemetery, the Slayer knowing that this was the best place to start; by the time she had reached the large cemetery gate, she already could hear the sounds of fighting, making it clear to her that she had gone to the right place.

Making sure to keep quiet so the element of surprise would be on her side once she'd join the fight, Buffy sneaked closer to the sounds, using the gravestones, mausoleums and trees for cover; it didn't take her long to get close enough to the fighters to see what was going on, her heart performing a painful summersault in her chest when she spotted Pat combating a group of four, consisting of three vamps and one demon, clearly leftovers from Amy's little army, now without a leader, but still out for blood.

To her immense relief though, she quickly figured out that Dawn's worries had been unjustified; even though she was outnumbered, the demon seemed to have not much troubles, keeping her back covered by standing close to one of the crypts, staking one of the vampires and turning him into a pile of dust just as Buffy came close enough to be able to help, should it be necessary. For a few moments though, the Slayer just kept watching, unnoticed by the demon and her opponents, insecure if she should join the fight or not; then, she decided that she might as well be part of the action and let the stake she had hidden up her sleeve slide out, gripping it tightly as she snuck up to one of the vampires, still unnoticed, the expression of surprise on his face when she staked him from behind being the last thing Pat saw of him before he turned to dust as well.

"Buffy", the black haired woman greeted, to the blonde's relief not sounding annoyed or angered about her presence; she took the time to give the demon a brief smile, then got rid of the second vampire, staking him easily when he charged at her blindly, leaving only the demon to be dealt with, something Pat took care of easily, taking advantage of the demon's obvious confusion about the sudden entrance of the Slayer by ramming her sword through his chest, a satisfied look on her face when he crumpled to the ground and died.

"Just wanted to make sure you'll be fine", Buffy casually stated as she took a step closer to her friend, the cemetery around them now quiet again; with a small sigh, the demon dropped the sword in reply, then surprised Buffy by sitting down at the crypt, leaning against it while she dug out her pack of cigarettes and lit one of them up.

"It's still unreal", she muttered after a few moments of silence, Buffy moving to sit next to her and looking at her, her concern clearly showing, the Slayer remaining silent though as she sensed that her friend had more to say.

"I expect her to just pop up now and scold me for going into such a fight", Pat went on after a few more moments had passed quietly, "I don't know, it's just… I can't believe she's gone…"

"I know how you feel", Buffy reassured her in reply, a tiny tremble in her voice as she continued, now staring down on the grass between her feet. "She's always been there for all of us, all the time… It's hard to imagine that she won't be anymore now…"

"She's the first one I've had all those feelings for", Pat mumbled, taking a long drag from her cigarette before she continued, making Buffy look at her again. "I still do, I mean, I still love her… I don't think I'll ever stop."

She sighed, giving the Slayer a miserable look; in response, the blonde reached out to place a comforting hand on her shoulder, her voice trembling once more as she replied. "I love her too, she was my best friend… And I don't think she'll ever mean less to me… God, I miss her so much, it hurts so much to think she'll never be around again…"

Her hand moved away from the demon's shoulder and she buried her face in both hands, a shudder running through her, followed by a sob as the realization she had been waiting for came at last; next to her, Pat gave her a concerned look, then slowly put an arm around her shoulders, holding her as she cried, trying to give her comfort despite needing so much of it herself.

* * *

"You know, I only went to look for you because of Dawn", Buffy stated half an hour later, as Pat and she were on their way back to the house, her words causing the demon to raise an eyebrow at her. "She was afraid you might try to get yourself killed or something", the Slayer explained, relieved when the demon immediately shook her head in reply.

"Willow wouldn't have wanted that", the black haired woman then muttered to herself, sighing before she lit up yet another cigarette, Buffy giving her a small smile in reply.

"You're right", she then reassured the demon, "she wouldn't want that…" Pat just let out another sigh as an answer, then finished her cigarette and threw it on the sidewalk; for a moment, she almost expected to hear Willow's voice, and how she'd scold her for doing that, then she once more painfully realized that this wouldn't happen again, that the redhead was gone and wouldn't come back.

Distraught, the demon ran one hand through her hair, causing Buffy to give her a worried look, the Slayer not making a comment though; they just kept walking on in silence, both of them thinking of Willow and of how much they were missing her.

"I wonder if they'll keep sticking together", the blonde changed the topic after a few minutes had passed in silence, making the demon next to her give her a confused look, clearly not able to follow her.

"The vamps and demons", she explained at seeing the expression on the black haired woman's face, "usually, they don't group like that. They just started doing that when Amy worked her mojo on them, but you were up against three vamps and one demon, weren't you?"

"Yeah", Pat shrugged after a moment of thinking about it, "but does it matter? Amy's been defeated, even if they do stick together from now on, they'll just be up to their usual stuff… Sucking blood and wrecking havoc. Right?"

"I guess so", Buffy had to agree, "even though I don't like the thought of them teaming up in the future…"

"We'll be able to handle it", the demon gave back, shrugging once more, "we did before… And usually, demons aren't that big on working with vampires, so maybe it'll stop sooner or later. Maybe that's just a leftover from Amy's power or something."

"Did you ever do it?" Buffy asked in reply, earning yet another confused look, realizing that once more, her mind had taken a jump the demon hadn't been able to follow. "Did you ever team up with a vampire?" she thus clarified, not surprised when immediately, the taller woman shook her head.

"Never saw why I should", she then stated, giving in to her urges and lighting up another cigarette. "Always did fine on my own. Not to mention that most demons see vampires as beneath them, close to animals, so it would have been bad for my credibility."

"That must have gone down the drain when you hooked up with… us", Buffy gave back, correcting herself in the last moment; still the demon knew what she had been about to say, smiling weakly and shrugging, taking another drag of her cigarette before she answered. "I didn't care anymore then… Willow is… was… more important… I still can't believe she's gone."

She let out another heavy sigh, making Buffy nod next to her; afterwards, they both fell silent again, none of them saying another word until they arrived back at the house.


	13. Chapter 13

Shortly after they had arrived back home, Pat had stated that she'd go to bed, even though she doubted she'd find much sleep; Buffy and Dawn made their way to their bedrooms as well shortly afterwards, the house soon falling quiet as the three of them had all laid down to sleep. Just like the demon, Buffy was quite convinced that she wouldn't fall asleep anytime soon, again and again seeing how Willow had fallen in front of her eyes, cursing herself for not being able to do anything; even though she knew it was no good, she kept asking herself if maybe, there could have been something she could have done, if she might have been able to safe her best friend, had she reacted faster or differently.

Without even noticing it fully, the Slayer slowly drifted off into sleep after a while, despite her sureness that this wouldn't happen; she slumbered surprisingly peacefully for almost two hours, then the dreams started, once more confronting her with her failure and forcing her to live through those horrible seconds once more. Then, the scenery changed, right after Willow had fallen and had vanished; within the blink of an eye, the Slayer found herself at her home again, in her bedroom, a tall form looming over her as she laid in her bed, unable to move, aware that she was dreaming, but not able to make herself wake up.

"You let her die", the figure next to her bed now spoke, Buffy recognizing Pat's voice despite how flat and hollow it sounded, "you promised you'd look out for her and you let her die!"

She raised her hand, the moonlight shining in through the partly opened curtains making the blade of the dagger she was holding glisten, strangely beautiful; then, the blade came down, and with a gasp, Buffy's eyes flew open as she rolled over in her bed, clutching the blanket to herself, her heart racing in her chest.

"Jeez", she mumbled after a few seconds, sitting up and running both hands through her sweaty hair, "wonder what a psychologist would say about—"

Movement next to her bed distracted her, and she automatically looked over; moments later, she let out another startled gasp as she saw Pat standing there, letting out a heavy breath afterwards.

"Jeez", she then repeated, giving the demon a confused look, asking herself what she was doing in her bedroom, "you startled me… What is it? Is something wrong?"

"You let her die", Pat told her in reply, causing her eyes to go wide, a feeling of déjà vu coming over her, only increasing when the demon spoke on, repeating the exact words she had said just minutes ago, in her dream; and just like in the dream, she brought up her hand afterwards, the blade of the dagger glistening as it came down.

Thanks to years of training her reflexes, she easily could roll out of the way before the dagger even came close, the blade sinking into the mattress; quickly, Buffy kicked the blanket away from herself so it wouldn't end up wrapped around her feet and keep her from fighting properly, her mind racing as she tried to figure out what exactly was happening to the demon to make her do this.

"Stop it!" she snapped while the black haired woman yanked the dagger out of the mattress and came at her again, swinging the weapon at her, Buffy easily dodging the rather clumsy attack though, asking herself once more what was going on – after all, she had seen the demon fight lots of times, even had battled her herself once, but she never had been as clumsy as that swing with the knife had been a second ago.

Quickly, she ducked another attack, then delivered a well-aimed high kick, her foot connecting with the taller woman's wrist; just like she had intended, this made Pat drop the dagger, and hurriedly, Buffy kicked the weapon as well, making it slide beneath the bed – before she caught the fist of the demon as she tried to punch her, using the grip she had on the black haired woman now to twist her arm up behind her back and force her face first against the wall, barely out of breath as she held her there.

"Calm down", she snapped, holding back the urge to twist her arm up further when she struggled in response, not wanting to break her arm, "and stop that! What's wrong with you?"

In response, the demon kicked her in the knee hard enough to make her let go of her, a yelp escaping her as she stumbled back; with a growl, Pat spun around, trying to punch her once more, the Slayer easily ducking the hit, then grabbed the taller woman's arm and, having enough of this, used the momentum she still had from the missed punch to throw her over her shoulder and on her dresser, wincing when the piece of furniture broke with a horribly loud crash.

Groaning, the demon shook her head, sitting up slowly after a few moments; still with her fists clenched, Buffy watched her, ready to defend herself again should it be necessary, but it seemed that whatever had driven Pat was over, since she shook her head in confusion, then looked around before her gaze focused on the Slayer, her voice confused when she spoke up. "Why am I in your room? And why am I sitting in the sad remains of your… whatever that is?"

"It was my dresser", Buffy gave back, distracted by the sound of the door behind her opening moments later, causing her to turn around, the Slayer not surprised to see her sister poking her head into the room, worry written all over her face.

"What's going on?" she asked, sounding a bit sleepy despite the concern which clearly was filling her, "I heard this big crash…"

"I fell on Buffy's dresser", Pat mumbled in reply, coming to her feet again and dusting herself of; Dawn gave her a confused look, but before she could say anything else, Buffy spoke up again, giving her best to sound soothing. "It's alright Dawn, nothing happened. Go back to sleep."

To her surprise and relief, her sister obeyed her without question; she gave Pat and her another look, this time curious, but then turned and left, closing the door behind herself. "So?" the demon stated as soon as she was sure that Dawn was gone, "what's going on?"

"I was hoping you'd be able to tell me that", Buffy gave back, moving up to her and giving her a concerned look. "You wanted to kill me", she then added, not surprised when her friend's good eye went wide in reply, the demon clearly shocked to hear this; quickly, Buffy explained the rest, mentioning what Pat had said before she had attacked and finding the dagger beneath the bed to prove her point.

"This is creepy", the demon mumbled as soon as Buffy had gotten done with her explanation, sitting down on the bed and looking at the Slayer worried, "and bad. Really bad."

"And you remember nothing?" Buffy demanded to know, making Pat shake her head; nervously, she ran both hands through her hair, then looked at the dagger again, taking it from the Slayer and studying it as if it would be able to tell her what had happened.

"Has this ever happened to you before?" Buffy asked next to her, making her shake her head, dismay in her voice when she replied. "No… I've totally blacked out, it wasn't even like that when Amy had…" She fell silent all at once, her eye widening before she looked at Buffy again, sounding alarmed as she spoke on. "Amy. It must have been her, no one else has been able to get such control over me, and Willow said that this might happen when she took control of us, that we might black out once she reached her full potential and be just our dark sides…"

"But Amy's dead", Buffy pointed out in reply, trying to ignore the tiny glimmer of hope which had been sparked up in her soul at the demon's words. "Isn't she?" she added after a second, making the taller woman shrug before she got up from the bed and started pacing the room, now sounding nervous and at the same time hopeful as she replied. "I don't know. I don't think there is anyone else who can gain such a level of control, I mean, she had to breach Willow's spell and everything… But if she's still alive…"

"Then Willow might be, too", Buffy finished for her, making the black haired woman nod; for a few moments, the two just looked at each other, then Pat spoke up again, saying exactly what Buffy had been having in mind. "We should go there tomorrow and check. Just to be sure."

"Yes", the Slayer immediately agreed, to the great relief of the demon, "first thing in the morning. Now, we should go back to sleep… And please don't try to kill me anymore."

"I'll give my best", Pat mumbled, apologizing for the attack before she left the bedroom and returned to the one she had shared with Willow before this whole catastrophe, her mind running wild as she laid back down, trying to tell herself that she shouldn't get her hopes up too high and that Willow surely would have come back to them by now, if she really was still alive, unable though to keep herself from hoping that maybe, things would be fine after all.

* * *

"And you're sure you'll be able to do this?" Giles asked for the third time in the next morning, watching how Pat buckled on the climbing harness the Watcher had found among his Slayer-supplies, making her nod with impatience, her voice showing that emotion quite clearly as well when she replied. "Yes, I am. I've done this before."

"Climbed into a chasm of Hell?" Anya wanted to know in reply, sounding and looking honestly interested; rolling her eye, the demon shook her head, then explained that she had climbed mountains and down regular gorges before, but that it wouldn't make much of a difference.

"Be careful", Buffy advised her once she had finished with the climbing harness and had tied the rope which would secure her to the nearest sad remains of a stone pillar, tugging at it several times to make sure it'd hold; she nodded at the Slayer as soon as she was convinced that the rope wouldn't tear or slip and she'd fall, then lowered herself over the edge of the chasm, the others waiting in breathless silence as they listened to the sounds she made while climbing down.

Every now and then, the demon would curse audibly, successfully scaring her friends as they thought each time that she was about to fall; after a while, her curses became harder to hear as she climbed further down, then faded away fully, prompting Buffy to peek over the edge, the Slayer briefly feeling nauseous when she saw how deep that chasm was.

"This might take a while", she stated once she had moved back from the edge, sitting down; the rest did the same after a moment, silence filling the air around them – before Xander spoke up and asked the blonde to tell them once more what exactly had prompted them to come here and to send Pat climbing.

Figuring that it would pass the time they'd have to wait until the black haired woman would come back up, Buffy did so, making Giles nod once she had gotten done, the Watcher sounding thoughtful when he replied. "She might be right, you know… It could have been Amy. I can't think of anyone else who might have the power to do that."

"But didn't her brain leak out of her ears when she fell?" Anya wanted to know, making the others grimace at the visual this gave them; sighing to himself, Giles shook his head after he had gotten over the brief queasiness in his tummy, then looked at the ex-demon, taking off his glasses as he replied. "Technically, yes, even though I wish you wouldn't use that wording. If she found a way to escape though before this happened… with a spell maybe…"

"Or if Willow did a spell", Buffy threw in, nearly slapping herself for not thinking about this earlier. "Some kind of relocation spell?" she went on when the Watcher gave her a rather blank look, "she can do those, right?"

"The only person she ever relocated was Glory, and she didn't know where she'd sent her", Giles pointed out in reply, "but… Now that you mention it, I don't think she ever said anything about that spell again, but this doesn't mean that she didn't work it out and perfected it, of course."

"Of course", Xander echoed, gaining the attention of the others, "so let's assume she did this relocation thingy, and took Amy along on accident or on purpose, whatever. Where is she now then? Why didn't she come back to us?"

"Maybe Amy kept her", Anya shrugged, clearly not realizing what she was implying with her words, only getting what she had said when the others stared at her in shock and adding a meek "Oh" to her sentence.

"Let's wait with worrying until Pat's back up here", Buffy stated after a moment, the thought of Amy being alive and having Willow, a possibly hurt Willow, not something she liked to have in her mind.

"We should, yes", Giles agreed to her relief, all of them falling silent again afterwards, looking at the chasm as they waited for the demon to come back up, afraid of what Pat might tell them once she'd join them again.


	14. Chapter 14

By the time the demon had climbed back up, she was covered in sweat, clearly exhausted; she flopped down next to the chasm after Buffy had pulled her up the last short distance, wiping sweat off her brow and panting, clearly not willing to wait until she had caught her breath again though, immediately speaking up as soon as she had sat up on the cold ground. "There's nothing down there. No bodies."

"Also no body parts?" Anya asked, peeking into the chasm while Pat grimaced, "I mean, falling from such a height, that would splatter them, right?"

"Also no body parts", the demon muttered, "and no blood, no nothing. They never hit the ground."

"So they might be still alive", Buffy was the one to say what everyone was thinking, and hoping. "The question is, where are they?"

"We need a witch", Pat sighed out in reply, "to do some location spell or something… How else are we gonna find them?"

"I'll contact the coven again", Giles reassured her in reply, briefly surprising her by reaching out and patting her shoulder – they had gotten along fairly well, but never had been particularly close, so the gesture was unexpected, but welcome. "Maybe they can instruct me how to do such a spell, without endangering myself or the rest of you. As far as I know, Willow did them when she was still rather… new to this whole magic thing, so it should be possible for me as well, even though I didn't do much magic since Willow started practicing."

"What are we waiting for then?" Buffy demanded to know, throwing the demon a look before she continued. "If they both survived, then Willow might need our help. We shouldn't waste any time."

"Right", Pat and Xander agreed in perfect unison, exchanging a quick glance afterwards before they all came to their feet; and together, they left the sad remains of the church, heading back to the Slayer's home, all of them filled with new hope that maybe, their best friend and loved one might not be dead after all.

* * *

"This should do", Giles stated almost an hour later, back at the Slayer's house and after the call he had made to the coven in England, the members to his relief more than willing to help him and instructing him as good as possible on how to do the spell; he gave the map he had spread on the kitchen table another look, then readied the ingredients for the spell, looking up at the rest as soon as he had put everything up in the right order.

"Step back everyone, please", he ordered, "the coven instructed me well, but I'm not quite sure it'll work out just fine."

To his relief, they all obeyed him without question, moving away from the kitchen table and to the walls, Buffy ending up next to Pat while Anya was snuggling up to Xander, her eyes never leaving the table; trying to ignore his watching friends, Giles began the chant he had been taught, adding the ingredients to the wooden bowl he had prepared one by one, imploringly hoping that he hadn't mixed up the sequence.

With a deep breath, he tossed the last bundle of herbs into the bowl, then mumbled the last words of the spell; with a surprisingly bright flame, the ingredients he had finished mixing in the bowl vanished in a puff of smoke, and moments later, several bright lights started gleaming on the map, the sight prompting everyone to come closer again and look at it.

"Look, there's you", Anya nudged Pat, pointing to the light glowing at the address of Buffy's home afterwards, then amusing the demon by waving at the small gleaming spot and calling out "Hi!", the rest smiling at the sight as well.

"You know, I am standing right here, you could just say Hi to me instead of my glowing light on that map", Pat then pointed out, Anya shrugging in reply and smiling at her before they all focused on the map again, trying to figure out which one of the glowing lights was Amy – before they all noticed a bunch of them close to the outskirts of the small town, Giles nodding at the questioning look Buffy was giving him.

"That must be it", he stated what everyone else had wanted to her, "Amy and her… helpers. If I'm not counting wrong, there are at least five there with her, and I'm not sure if it's just vampires or other demons, as well."

"No matter what it is, we'll handle it", Pat gave back, sounding determined, making Buffy nod – before she surprised everyone by stating that she'd go and get Spike before they'd rush in there, making them all look at her, the Slayer shrugging at the surprised looks she was receiving for her words.

"What?" she then added, putting her hands on her hips, "he's a skilled fighter, we might need him. Especially if you'll focus on Willow, Pat, and don't tell me now you won't, because that'd be a lie and anyway, I want you to. I want you to focus on getting her out, alright?"

"If she is there", Giles pointed out, making the demon glare at him – before she sighed and had to admit that he did have a point, shrugging it off afterwards though, telling herself that the lack of bodies at the bottom of the chasm had been a clear sign that Willow had gotten out as well and that surely, she was fine.

"If she's there, I'll only fight to get to her, and then get her out", she thus confirmed, making Buffy nod; afterwards, the Slayer let the rest know that they all should try to get some sleep so they'd be rested when they'd strike at nightfall, the house falling quiet shortly afterwards as they all retreated, neither the demon, nor the Slayer able to get much sleep though as both of them kept wondering if they'd find Willow there – and if she would be alright after all, both of them worried about the things Amy might have done to her since they had fallen into the chasm together.

* * *

It didn't surprise any of them that the place Amy had chosen was a rather rundown estate; it might have been impressive when it still had been taken care of, with the two stories and the big garden, but the way it looked now, it rather depressed than anything else, the Slayer shaking her head to herself while she look at it.

"You'd think they'd choose nicer places to hang out", she mumbled, making Spike scoff next to her, the vampire giving her an amused look afterwards.

"So someone can waltz in because they wanna buy the nicer place or something? Nah, such places are bloody perfect", he then let her know, making her roll her eyes before she focused on Pat, giving her a slightly worried look.

"If Willow is in there, she might be in bad shape", she stated, not bothering to sugar-coat her words, knowing she didn't have to. "You'll be able to handle it?"

"I'll get her out", the demon simply replied, making the blonde nod, satisfied; she quickly glanced at the street again, where Xander was waiting in his car, the engine running, in case a quick retreat should be necessary, then took in a deep breath, steeling herself for any unpleasant sights which might await them in there before she finally gave the command to enter.

As it had been agreed upon before they had gotten out of Xander's car, Buffy and Spike did so side by side, with Pat forming the lonely rear, remaining a few steps behind the two; they all hoped that the demons and vampires there would attack the two of them right after spotting them, and that this would give the black haired woman the time she'd need to find Willow and take her out. Telling herself that she could rely on the demon for that and that she had to focus on their opponents in there, Buffy gave her best not to think about her best friend and the state she might be in as she made her way downstairs into the cellar, where Amy and her little group surely were staying – after all, the vampires were protected from the sunlight there, making them much more effective to the possessed woman.

To her relief, Amy clearly was fully unaware of the new guests in her house, despite how big her powers might have gotten by now; as she snuck down the cellar hallway with Spike, Buffy could hear Amy talking about something, moving a bit closer to the door which separated from the woman's voice, quickly able to make out the words she was saying. "…strike soon, before they recover from the shock of watching their little witch fall… Then, with Buffy and her pesky friends out of the way, we'll rule this town and soon, the rest of the world!"

Having heard enough, the Slayer briefly shook her head to herself, asking herself why they always had to aim for world domination – before she kicked the door hard enough not just to throw it open, but to actually catapult it off the hinges and make it fall to the dirty ground with a resounding bang, her voice dry and composed as she spoke up, already taking in the number of their opponents while the words left her mouth. "I'm afraid I can't agree to that plan, Amy."

Clearly startled, Amy jumped up from her seat in reply, her eyes briefly widening – before the three vampires and two demons who had been with her charged, reacting just as Buffy had hoped they would by focusing fully on her, not even noticing how Pat hurried past them as they already were entangled in a fight with the Slayer and Spike.

To the demon's dismay, Amy didn't do her the favour of ignoring her as well, but stepped in her path instead, glaring at her; returning the glare, the black haired woman was forced to stop, bringing up her fists and letting them flame up, her good eye glowing brightly red and her voice down to a low growl when she snarled at the possessed woman to get out of her way.

"You're here for your little witch, aren't you", Amy taunted in reply, giggling girlishly afterwards; behind Pat, Buffy noticed that their opponent was keeping the demon from moving on, then had to focus on the group fighting Spike and her again though, thus missing the sight of the black haired woman suddenly lashing out and backhanding Amy hard enough to send her flying into the wall behind her.

Without bothering to even look at her again, Pat took the chance given by the other woman falling down and hurried past her, her gaze darting back and forth as she tried to figure out where she had taken Willow, by now convinced that the witch was here; then, she noticed a door at the far back of the room, registered the heavy padlock on it and suddenly knew where her loved one was, Amy and her demons forgotten as she hurried over to the door, her heart beating up to her throat with hope, excitement – and the fear of the state the redhead might be in once more.


	15. Chapter 15

It only took one powerful kick to break the door, the padlock not doing much good as the demon's attack simply made the wood around it break away; the door swung open, and Pat's breath got caught in her throat as her gaze fell on Willow, her heart performing daring summersaults in her chest as she realized that her loved one was still alive. A so far unknown storm of emotions raged through her while she hurried over to where her girlfriend had been tied standing up against the wall, almost ecstatic joy about seeing her alive giving room to anger when she saw that she was hurt, the fury only there for a second before it was pushed aside by the joy again, then finally her love for the redhead took over, all at once making her feel dizzy and giving her a hard time with breathing.

Upon hearing her hurried approach, Willow slowly raised her head, the fear the demon could see in her eyes making the anger take over again, the emotion only increasing when she saw the wad of dirty looking cloth which had been stuffed between her girlfriend's teeth, keeping her from casting spells; still Pat doubted that she would have been able to do much even without that keeping her quiet, her exhaustion so big that the demon practically could smell it.

As she recognized her loved one, the fear in the witch's eyes was pushed aside by surprise, then great relief; fighting back the urge to just hug the living daylights out of her, Pat stopped beside her, immediately starting to work on the bonds holding her, her heart aching at the position Willow had been tied in, with her arms high above her head, the demon not able to imagine how much this might have caused her still rather fresh knife wound to hurt.

"You'll be fine, you'll be alright", she kept mumbling while she worked on the rather pesky, withstanding knots, not even realizing fully that she was talking, "don't worry, Buffy and Spike and me are here, we'll get you out and you'll be fine…"

When Willow only let out a low groan in reply, Pat realized that she hadn't removed the gag yet, nearly slapping herself; quickly, she pulled the wad of clothing out of her girlfriend's mouth and threw it aside, then grew impatient with the ropes and just burned them, quickly grabbing the witch when her knees buckled, keeping her from falling. Even though she knew that she should get her out and into Xander's waiting car as fast as possible, Pat went down with her, holding her close to herself, a shuddery, watery breath coming from her when Willow clung to her and she fully realized that her loved one was alive and more or less well.

"I thought I'd lost you", the demon brought out, her voice trembling so much that she barely could say the words properly, her immense relief and happiness about finding her alive making the redhead give her a tiny smile despite her pain and how weak she was feeling, both of them ignoring the sounds of fighting which still were audible through the ruined door. "Never scare me like this again… I love you so much, I couldn't…"

She broke off, taking in another deep breath to hold back her tears, telling herself at last that now was hardly the time for heartfelt confessions and that she had to get Willow out of here quickly; as carefully as possible, she picked the redhead up in her arms, her heart clenching up again when Willow let out a small, pain-filled whimper in reply.

"Shht", she mumbled soothingly, "you'll be alright… We'll get you home and you'll be alright…"

"Oh no, you won't", a snarl came from the ruined door, making them both look there automatically; figuring that she shouldn't be surprised, Pat glared at Amy while she tenderly lowered her loved one to the ground again, telling her not to move before she stepped in front of her, clenching her fists and letting them flame up once more.

"You'll regret it if you'll try to stop me", she grumbled, annoyed when in response, Amy laughed heartily, her voice full of scorn as she replied. "No, I won't regret anything… You caught me unaware with that first hit you gave me, but that won't happen again."

With those words, she brought up her hand, almost casually flicking her fingers at the demon; the blink of an eye later, bright blue bolts of lightning shot towards the taller woman, so fast that she barely had enough time to dive out of their way, the lightning hitting the wall behind her and creating soft fizzling noises while she came to her feet again, now cursing the fact that she hadn't brought any weapons.

"Oh, yes, I forgot", Amy mused, smiling maliciously at the demon, "assassin. Good reflexes. Let's see how you handle… this."

With those words, her gaze moved to the ground, her eyes narrowing briefly; a second later, the stony ground seemed to come alive, two thin pillars of stone defying all laws of physics by snaking up and around the black haired woman's ankles, Amy laughing again at the shocked gasp Willow let out at the sight.

"You know that spell, huh?" she then stated, looking at the witch briefly while Pat unsuccessfully tried to free herself, an evil glint in her eyes as she went on. "Bet you won't know the next one… You've always been too kind-hearted for the really painful ones… I call it Remembrance."

Focusing on the demon again, she took another second to smile at her, then her eyes narrowed once more; and moments later, Willow cried out, her own aches forgotten when her loved one screamed in pain and slumped to her knees, clutching at the eye patch with one hand, blood seeping out from between her fingers, the manic laughter Amy was letting out mixing with the shouts of pain coming from the demon.

"See what it does?" Amy demanded to know once she had stopped laughing, ending the effect of the spell as well, smiling pleasantly at Willow while she moved to the nearest wall, grabbing a pipe which had been mounted to the stone and tearing it out easily, swinging it a few times to test its weight before she nodded to herself, then approached the demon, her smile widening at the heavy breaths Pat was letting out, still clutching at the eye patch with one hand.

"I can also make you feel her pain, or vice versa", she went on, looking at Willow again, giggling girlishly once more before she went on, her words making the eyes of the witch go wide. "Maybe that's how I'll kill you… I'll beat her to death and then make you feel it. Wouldn't that be nice? You'd be so connected to each other then!"

She giggled again, then the spear hit her in the back with a resounding _thunk _and cut her off, hard enough to go through her body and throw her over; within the blink of an eye, Buffy had moved up to her side and grabbed the spear's handle, putting her weight on it and using her strength to drive it further into the woman's body. The sharp tip produced audible scraping noises as it was forced into the stony ground, nailing Amy to the floor just as Buffy had intended when she had thrown the weapon; clearly in pain, she cried out, the stone around Pat's ankles shattering as her concentration broke.

"Can't agree to your plan again", she stated casually, not letting it show if she was freaked out by what she just had witnessed, "that's starting to become a habit, huh?"

Without bothering to wait for Amy's reply, she threw a questioning glance at Pat; in response, the demon came to her feet, ignoring her still rather obvious pain and the blood drying on her cheek and throat while she moved over to Willow and picked her up again, nodding when Buffy told her to hurry and get outside as fast as possible, the Slayer throwing one last look at Amy before she followed the taller woman, knowing that by now, this wouldn't stop Amy anymore, but glad that at least, her attack would give them the time they'd need to get back to the safety of her house.

* * *

"Are you sure you don't want to go to the hospital?" Buffy asked for the third time while Xander drove them all back to the house; on the backseat, Willow shook her head tiredly, some of her still uncomfortably present pain lessened by the fact that Pat was right beside her, her arm around her, the witch's head resting on the demon's shoulder.

"I'll be fine", she made herself say, smiling weakly when her loved one carefully pulled her even closer to herself, "Pat can stitch me up…"

"You can?" Buffy asked in surprise, her gaze moving to the demon; shrugging, she nodded, ignoring the unpleasant feeling of dried blood on her skin while she replied. "Yeah, it won't be as good as a doctor could do it, but it should do."

"…fine", the Slayer grudgingly agreed after a moment, knowing that she wouldn't be able to convince Willow of going to the hospital anyway and figuring that the demon would know what she'd be doing; she leaned back into the passenger seat and let out a small sigh, then suddenly perked up as another thought hit her and turned in the seat once more so she could look at her two friends in the back again. "And you? You'll be fine, right? That thing she did looked pretty painful."

"It was", Pat agreed with a grimace, "but I'm okay, no worries…" In response, Buffy looked at her for a moment longer, then nodded and made herself comfortable again; the rest of the drive was spent in silence, all of them hanging after their own thoughts, still overwhelmed by finding Willow alive and almost well, hardly able to believe how lucky they had been.

* * *

Even though she had swallowed two painkillers before Pat had started stitching up the reopened knife wound, it still hurt terribly; clearly having experience with that kind of pain, the demon helped her to keep the screams inside by giving her the leather belt she had been wearing and telling her to bite down on it as hard as she could, this not helping with the pain, but at least making sure that she wouldn't shout loud enough to alarm the whole house.

"I'd hurry, but then it'll be no good", the black haired woman mumbled apologetically, squinting slightly as she kept her gaze focused on the wound, "but I promise I'll be done soon."

Willow let out a low groan in reply, biting down on the belt again when the needle went into her flesh once more; finally, after another five agonizing minutes, Pat got done, looking relieved as well while she snapped the thread, then reached for the bandages she had readied before starting, carefully finishing the job by covering the wound with a square of mull and wrapping the bandage around it.

"There", she stated as soon as she had gotten done with that, sitting back, ignoring the fact that there was blood on her hands now from taking care of the wound, "all done… Anything else you need stitched up?"

"No", Willow mumbled after she had removed the belt from her mouth, the black haired woman raising an eyebrow when she saw the clearly visible bite marks her loved one had left in the leather, "I don't think so… The rest's mostly cuts and bruises, well, except for…"

Grimacing at the painful memory, she moved her hair aside; seconds later, Pat's good eye went wide and her jaw dropped, her voice trembling slightly when she looked at her girlfriend's face again. "They didn't… turn you, did they?"

"No", Willow mumbled, wincing at the thought while the demon took a closer look at the bite marks on her neck, "Amy just let them feed off me, for her own fun I guess, she was watching and giggling in that horrible way, but at least she stopped them each time before they could… take too much…"

A tremble ran through her as she thought of those horrible times again, how two of them would grab her and keep her still while the third one would sink his fangs into her neck and how they had taken turns on drinking from her, until Amy would stop them; a second later, Pat had moved to sit on the bed next to her, carefully taking her into her arms, somehow managing to do so without causing fresh pain to well up in her hurt shoulder.

"They won't touch you again", the taller woman soothingly mumbled into her ear, smiling slightly when in response, Willow snuggled up to her and rested her head on her shoulder again, "I won't let them… Now that I got you back, I'll never let anyone harm you again, I promise. After you fell down there, we all were sure you're dead, and I… I just didn't know how to handle it…"

She fell silent, swallowing heavily, once more close to tears; smiling weakly, Willow moved her healthy hand to place it on one of hers, her voice soft when she replied. "Amy kept telling me that you'd all think I'm dead and wouldn't come to rescue me, and that she'd make me watch how she'd kill you all before she'd kill me… But I knew you'd come, and get me out of there, that's what kept me going even when she'd taunt me and laugh at me while her vampires used me as a snack bar."

"It's a pity Buffy and Spike staked them", the demon muttered in reply, "I would have loved to do that to them myself… But at least they're gone now, they won't hurt you again. No one's ever going to hurt you again."

"I'm not afraid anymore", Willow reassured her in reply, her smile widening slightly when one of Pat's hands moved to caress her hair tenderly, "now that I'm with you again…"

"I love you", the demon almost blurted out in reply, making her smile become even wider; despite her pain, she craned her neck so she could kiss the taller woman tenderly, mumbling "I love you, too" afterwards, then rested her head on her girlfriend's shoulder again and just enjoyed being so close to her after the time they had spent apart, knowing that the demon was just as happy to have her back as she was about being reunited with her.


	16. Chapter 16

When Willow woke up in the next morning, she had no idea when exactly she had fallen asleep; it was clear though that it had happened without Pat or her noticing, both of them still fully dressed, the demon even still having blood on her hands, cheek and throat, something which would have grossed the witch out in other circumstances, but she didn't mind it much at the moment.

Holding back the urge to let out a happy sigh, since she didn't want to wake the demon up, she snuggled a bit closer to her, grimacing when briefly, the movement made pain well up in her shoulder; then, it faded to a bearable level, and she smiled to herself again, studying her still slumbering girlfriend's face and enjoying it to feel her body heat beneath herself. It didn't take long until the demon stirred, then opened her eye and blinked sleepily; the moment her gaze met Willow's, she smiled slightly, one of her hands coming up to caress her hair, her voice low – and sending shivers up and down the witch's spine – when she mumbled "Good morning" to her.

"The best morning", Willow let her know in reply, only to wince a second later when Pat moved beneath her, quickly correcting herself afterwards. "Okay, second best, what with the pain and… the pain. Ouch."

"Oh, jeez, I'm sorry", the demon immediately apologized, giving her a concerned look while she, with much more care, moved out from underneath her, "I'll get you a painkiller, and some water, then it'll be fine."

"Wow", Willow observed in reply, watching how the demon vanished in the adjoined bathroom to get one of the pills and a glass of water, "I should wake up and be in pain more often, it takes your morning grumpiness away."

"Don't you dare", came the reply from the bathroom, followed by Pat's footsteps as she returned to the bedroom, a glass of water and one of the painkillers in hand; she handed both items to the witch, then sat down on the bed again, smiling at her and once more moving one hand to caress her hair, the redhead smiling briefly in reply before she gulped down the pill, then made herself comfortable again by putting the pillow up against the headboard and leaning against it, briefly grimacing once more as the movement again caused pain to well up in her arm and shoulder.

"You know", the demon spoke up while she sat down next to the redhead again, "it was so unreal when I thought you're dead, and now that you're back, it's all unreal, again. This is weird."

"I could use my knowledge from psychology lessons at college now, even though they were given by a creepy government-hired professor who ended up skewered by her own even creepier creation, and explain why this is perfectly normal", Willow gave back, ignoring the confused look she received in reply, "but I know a much better way to prove how real this is…"

"You do?" Pat feigned ignorance, deciding to ignore the bit about creepy government professors for now; smiling again, Willow nodded, then reached out with her healthy hand to grasp the front of her lover's shirt, pulling her closer, their lips meeting seconds later. It only took another two seconds for the kiss to deepen, a soft moan escaping the witch when it did so; the sound clearly encouraged her girlfriend, since she wrapped an arm around her and, still with exceeding care, pulled her closer to herself, briefly making the redhead curse the fact that she couldn't return the embrace properly with both arms.

Still she enjoyed it the best she could as long as it lasted; when she finally had to pull back due to oxygen becoming an issue, her cheeks were flushed, and she wasn't surprised to see a well-known glint in her lover's good eye, the sight making her giggle while she shook her head, then moved her hand to caress her cheek tenderly.

"Less unreal now?" she softly demanded to know, holding back the urge to giggle again when in reply, Pat put on a thoughtful expression, even rubbing her chin and looking up at the ceiling, making a few "Hmmm" sounds before she looked at the redhead again, not really surprising her with her response. "Not sure yet, I think I'll need another one of those sweet kisses to decide."

"Can do", Willow mumbled in reply, then pulled her closer for yet another deep kiss; they both soon were so absorbed in it that they didn't hear how the door opened behind them, then, Dawn cleared her throat, and the couple pulled apart, the demon looking over her shoulder and smirking slightly when she saw the teenager standing there.

"Didn't anyone ever teach you to knock?" she teased, not getting much of a reaction though since Dawn simply ignored her, her gaze focused on Willow as she rushed over to the bed, both the witch and the demon touched by the tears they could see in her eyes when she carefully hugged the redhead.

"I'm so happy you're back", she brought out while Willow returned the embrace, her loved one watching the touching scene with a slight smile on her face; patting Dawn's back, the witch reassured her that she was happy to be back as well, the teen wiping away her tears with a slightly embarrassed look on her face once she had pulled back from the hug.

"The rest is here, as well", she then let the couple know, after clearing her throat a few times so she wouldn't sound all choked up and teary, "and Buffy's making breakfast."

"We better get down there as well, then", Willow stated, making Pat nod; carefully, the demon helped her up from the bed, then they asked Dawn to wait outside while they'd clean up and change their clothing, the teenager nodding as well, taking the time to hug Willow once more before she left the room, giving the couple the privacy they'd asked for – and the chance for another heartfelt kiss, the taller woman just holding the redhead close to herself afterwards, once more thanking anyone who might be listening for bringing the witch back to her.

* * *

"And here's our special guest", Xander announced in his best announcer voice the moment Willow stepped into the kitchen, supported by Pat's arm around her waist; she smiled at him, her gaze wandering from one member of the Scooby gang to the next afterwards, the happiness and relief she saw in their eyes – even in Anya's – touching her deeply and making her smile widen.

"I'm glad you're not dead", Anya told her while she sat down at the kitchen table, the demon taking the seat beside her, "everyone was all sad and gloomy when we thought you are. Even me."

"I'm glad I'm not dead, too", Willow reassured her, looking up a second later when Giles stepped up to her and placed his hand on her healthy shoulder; he didn't say anything, and it wasn't necessary, the redhead clearly reading all his feelings about her return to them in his eyes, smiling up at him in response and reaching up to touch his hand briefly. Returning the smile, the Watcher squeezed her shoulder briefly, then moved back to where he had been standing next to Buffy, the Slayer busy with making breakfast; still she smiled at Willow as well while Xander moved closer to her and tenderly hugged her, giving her a concerned look afterwards.

"Are you sure you don't need to go to the hospital?" he demanded to know, gesturing at her wounded shoulder and briefly making her glad he couldn't see the bloodstained bandage through her clothing; nodding in reply, she reassured him that she was fine, the young man giving her another doubtful look, but accepting her words and sitting back down again.

"Even though I'm worried about your health, I'm also glad", Buffy let her know, looking at the witch briefly before she focused on the ham and eggs she was preparing again. "We'll need to go up against Amy soon, and we'll need you for that, you and your magic."

"I know", Willow gave back, briefly glancing at her lover beside her when she felt the taller woman's hand grasp hers, "I've been racking my mind already for spells which will weaken her."

"You nailed her to the ground with a spear", Pat pointed out in reply, raising an eyebrow at the Slayer, "and you're so sure she's still alive?"

"Yes", Buffy sighed out in reply, giving Giles a brief grateful look when he started helping her with moving the food from the pan to the plates she had readied, "seeing how powerful she is by now, this wasn't enough to kill her for sure."

"Cut off her head then", Anya suggested as an answer, "that always works. Well, almost always, but it should work with her."

"If we can get close enough to do that", Buffy sighed, focusing on the redhead again afterwards. "Do you think you can do some sort of protection spell for whatever that was she used on Pat? It'd be terrible if she'd do that again."

"Tell me about it", the demon commented dryly, causing Anya, Dawn and Giles to look at her in confusion, making it clear that so far, Buffy hadn't told them any details of the battle; quickly, the Slayer explained what had happened, then gave Willow a questioning look, the redhead nodding after a few moments of thinking about it.

"I guess I can work something up", she stated, "I'll need a few hours though, it won't be easy to protect all of you from such a spell, it was powerful."

"Alright", Buffy nodded, to the witch's great relief – for a few seconds, she had been worried that the Slayer might demand her to get done faster. "Attack magic will be needed, too", Buffy now went on, "or… something to weaken her defences."

"I'll come up with something", Willow promised, shaking her head when Anya asked if Pat and she couldn't do their little fire spell again together.

"She's possessed by the Devil", the redhead then pointed out while Buffy put down the plates with the ham and eggs in front of everyone, "fire won't hurt her much. Unfortunately."

"Yeah, it's too bad", Pat muttered her agreement, causing the witch to give her another brief look and a reassuring smile; clearly, this was enough to take the demon's dismay away, since she immediately smiled back, then focused on Buffy, sounding sincere when she spoke on. "You should focus on taking Amy out, you are the Slayer, after all. I'll keep her demons and pet vamps away from you and from Willow."

"You and Spike will do that", Buffy nodded, "if he agrees to help once more, that is. I'll go and ask him after breakfast."

"And I'll start working on the spells", Willow promised, the blonde giving her a smile and yet another nod in reply; afterwards, they all focused on breakfast, for a while eating in silence – until Anya spoke up, gaining the attention of everyone and not just the redhead she had been addressing. "How come you are not dead, by the way? As I said, I'm happy you're not, I'd just like to know."

"Did you do a teleportation spell?" Giles added before Willow could answer, making her grimace, a sigh coming from her, slight dismay in her voice when she replied. "No, Amy did. And she was still all strong and full of power afterwards, which is quite unnerving to be honest, but at least it gave me an idea about how strong she really is by now. She must have either been very lucky or had perfect timing, she didn't teleport us out of there until she had absorbed all the power she could dare."

"Pity there was no brain leakage", Pat grumbled, making Anya nod heartily while the others once more grimaced at the mental image; then, they all shrugged it off simultaneously, Xander changing the topic rather clumsily afterwards by asking Dawn how her stay at her friends' place had been, the teen answering him willingly enough, the rest listening to her with only half an ear, all of them thinking about the upcoming fight and about the things which might go wrong.


	17. Chapter 17

Author's Note: After some pondering, I decided to switch from a once-per-week schedule to a twice-per-week posting routine, on Monday and Thursday, just to let you guys know :)

* * *

After breakfast, Buffy left for Spike's crypt and Willow made her way back upstairs to work on her spells, Pat coming with her; once back in the bedroom, the demon moved to the window and opened it so she could have a cigarette while the redhead picked up one of her spellbooks, briefly grimacing at the pain the movement caused to well up in her shoulder before she made herself comfortable, placing the book on her lap and beginning to leaf through it.

"You need some privacy for that?" Pat asked, turning to look at her, keeping her cigarette-holding hand close to the window so the smoke would stay outside and not spread in the room; glancing up at her, Willow smiled and shook her head, the loving sound of her voice making the demon smile as well when the redhead replied. "After that horrible time I had to spend away from you, you think I'll want you to go outside while I do this? Once you finished that cigarette, I want you right here beside me so we can cuddle while I look for the spells."

To the witch's amusement, the response was immediate, Pat throwing the cigarette out of the window without even taking another drag of it and jumping on the bed, making Willow giggle while she snuggled up to the taller woman, a happy sigh escaping her as soon as she had made herself comfortable once more.

"I'll look up the protection spell first", she stated while the demon's arms embraced her, her hands coming to a tender rest on her stomach, "that's the most important thing, I don't want you to go through that horrible pain again."

"Believe me, I don't want it, either", Pat grimaced in reply, "it was really painful, and also, it's very creepy when it starts bleeding again."

"It also looks creepy", Willow let her know in reply, grimacing as well at the memory before she forced herself to shrug it off and focus on the book in her lap again, Pat this time not distracting her with tender caresses, but merely looking over her shoulder in interest, studying the printed words, pictures and symbols.

"You know, for someone who's supposed to be naturally talented at magic, I understand shockingly little of all this", she mumbled after a while, Willow turning slightly so she could look at her, a smile on her face.

"Don't worry about it", she gave back, "it took me a while to figure it all out as well… There are still spells which make me go all What the Heck? when I look at them, you know."

"That's calming", the demon smirked in reply, then fell silent so Willow could concentrate on the book again; once more, silence settled over the room, the only noise being the sounds the witch made as she turned the pages – before she suddenly jumped in excitement, making the taller woman behind her jump as well, albeit for different reasons.

"Found something?" she demanded to know once she had gotten over the brief startle the redhead's excited movement had given her; nodding, Willow turned again so she could look at her, her eyes gleaming with excitement, already answering the question before she nodded, her enthusiasm making the black haired woman smile. "Yes! The perfect protection against her little mind tricks. I'll have to do it right before we enter that house where she's staying now, and it won't hold up for long, but it should last long enough so Buffy can deal with her."

"That reminds me", Pat said in reply, "you might want to renew that other spell you did so she can't fuck with our minds. She did her little mojo again after you… fell with her, and sent me into Buffy's room in the middle of the night with a big, pointy knife, to kill her."

"Um, that was kinda my fault", Willow admitted, to the slight amusement of the demon blushing, "because, you see, she was trying that mojo on me when I was there, with her I mean, in that house, and it was much stronger so I had to focus on keeping her out of my mind, and that must have weakened it or taken it away fully from you, so… yeah."

"Yeah", Pat echoed, chuckling, "and now slow down, Sweetie, or you'll faint or something. It's okay, nothing happened… well, Buffy's dresser was ruined, which reminds me of the fact that I'll have to buy her a new one, but nothing happened to her or me. Just renew the spell and it'll be fine. Okay?"

"Okay", the witch sighed out, clearly relieved, making Pat wonder for a moment what she had been expecting, and if she had been worried that she might be scolded for letting that happen; then, she shrugged it off and gestured at the book again, bringing the topic back to the spell Willow had found.

"So how does this work?" she demanded to know, the redhead clearing her throat before she explained the spell; once she had gotten done, the demon nodded, sounding pleased when she spoke up again. "Sounds like it should work. But why am I surprised? Your spells always do."

"Most of the time", Willow corrected in reply, "and it hasn't always been like that, you know. Plus, I'm still no good with potions, hence why I always let Giles do them, mine always turn out… soupy. And anyway, I—"

"Hush", Pat interrupted her, successfully silencing her by placing a finger on her lips, "what are you doing? I just made you a compliment, why are you trying to convince me that what I said is wrong?"

"It's silly", the redhead mumbled after a few moments of silence – and after her girlfriend had pulled back her finger so she could actually talk properly -, a blush colouring her cheeks again; as an answer, Pat just gave her a patient look, and after a while, she sighed, snuggling closer to her loved one while she tried to find the right words, immediately calmed down by the feeling of the taller woman's arms encircling her and holding her close once more.

"When I was… in that house", she finally started to explain, "and noticed how strong Amy was… Magically speaking, ignoring the physical strength part for now, even though she probably could pick you up and hurl you all across that room if she wanted to, no matter if you're actually a head taller than her, it just made me feel so… weak. Weak and insignificant. I mean, she could have blown out my candle with a single gesture of her hand, you know? So I guess I'm just worried I'll be too weak to do anything against her, or to protect Buffy and you from her, but I can't afford it to be too weak, because you guys will need the spells to deal with her, and I'm afraid I'll mess it up and you might get hurt, or killed, just because I'll be too weak."

"You're not weak", Pat immediately reassured her, deciding that for now, she'd ignore the bit about Amy throwing her across rooms, "you're the strongest woman I know, so don't tell me you'll be too weak when I know you'll make that bitch crap her pretty pants."

"That would have been much sweeter if you'd left out the part about the bitch", Willow replied, still smiling at the words though, admitting to herself that despite the saucy language it had been rather sweet – and after all, she was used to the demon's potty mouth by now, and calling Amy a bitch wasn't unjustified after all they had gone through due to her.

"Anyway", she continued after pondering this for another moment, "how can I be the strongest woman you know? You also know Buffy, did you forget about her? You know, the Vampire Slayer, with Slayer strength and everything?"

"Nope, didn't forget", the demon reassured her, "but… How to say this so it'll make sense", she pondered aloud, making the witch smile slightly, "well… It's easy to be strong when you have the physical strength, you know? I mean, Buffy's got all this Slayer thingies going for her, Slayer strength, Slayer healing, and what not. And, well… you don't have that. And still you go into all those battles with her, have done so for years, even when you had no idea you'd be this powerful witch some day… That takes guts. And strength. More than physical strength, and that's why you're the strongest woman I know."

"That was perfectly sweet now", Willow sighed out in reply, "thanks…"

"Nothing to thank me for", the demon shrugged in reply, smirking down on her, "just told the truth."

"A truth I needed to hear, I guess", the redhead gave back, keeping the taller woman from answering by kissing her deeply, none of them noticing how the book slid off her lap and thumped to the ground a few minutes later.

* * *

"I have good news", Willow announced an hour later as Pat and she joined the rest of the gang in the living room; everyone looked at her, waiting for her to go on, and after clearing her throat, she did so, smiling proudly, the demon next to her smirking as well, even though it was more caused by amusement about her girlfriend's excitement.

"I found a spell we can use to protect us from Amy's little tricks", the witch announced, nearly bouncing on the spot as she continued. "From the remembrance thing, and from her little floor trick, plus it'll keep her from controlling the minds of Pat and me."

"That's really good news", Buffy smiled, a look of concern filling her eyes a second later though. "And you're sure you'll be able to handle it? It won't be… too much?"

"She'll be fine", Pat was the one to answer, briefly smiling at her loved one before she focused on the Slayer again. "The spell will tire her out, but I'll keep an eye on her… Um… well… My eye."

She smiled a crooked smile, Buffy smiling back after a moment before she nodded, her gaze moving back to the witch afterwards. "Not that I want to push you over the edge, but… Any offensive spells as well?"

"I can try the vine thing on her", Willow gave back, "not immediately after the defence spell, of course, but after resting for a minute or two."

"Or ten", Pat commented, shrugging at the slightly dismayed look the witch gave her in reply. "What? Better rest a bit longer and be fine than overdoing it after all and ending up veiny and evil. Or all tired out and drained."

"Five to six minutes then", Willow compromised after a moment. "And after those five or six minutes, as I said, I can try the vine thing on her, to keep her in place. I wish I could do more, but that protection spell will be kinda hard, and the vine one is easy, so…"

"It should be enough", Buffy stated after thinking about it for a moment, "maybe the vine thingy won't even be necessary. It might come in handy though if she gives me trouble when I'll try to cut off her head."

"Which she surely will", Giles commented, the Slayer giving him a brief annoyed look, not pointing out though that she was well aware of that herself; instead, she just rolled her eyes at him, shaking her head a moment later when Xander asked if she wanted them to come along.

"We'll be fine", she reassured him at his slightly miffed look, "Spike agreed to come along, so we've got all the fighters we need."

"We'll just wait here then and hope none of you will die", Anya quipped, the Slayer briefly smiling at her before she sighed, throwing a dismayed look out of the window afterwards.

"Too bad we have to wait until sundown 'cause of Spike", she then stated, "I'm all itchy to kick her ass."

"Or her head", Pat smirked, "across the room or something."

"Pat!" Willow cried out in shock, giving her a wide-eyed look; clearing her throat, the taller woman shrugged, then scratched the back of her head, sounding sheepish when she replied. "Sorry. That's my demon me talking, I guess."

"No head-kicking", Buffy strictly told her, then paused and thought about her words for a moment – before she corrected herself, her words making the demon smirk. "No head kicking after I cut her head off, I mean. You can kick it though as long as it's still attached to her body, I guess."

"I'll kick her demon and vampire pals, instead", the black haired woman opted, "you kick her head for me."

"Enough talk of kicking now", Willow cut in before this could go any further, feeling exasperated when Pat smirked at her, then looked at Buffy again, a hint of mischief in her voice when she innocently asked where she should land her punches; rolling her eyes, Willow threw her hands up and shook her head, then just sat down on the couch and crossed her arms, pouting, making the demon chuckle after a moment while she moved to sit next to her, putting an arm around her.

"Sorry", she apologized, "that was silly."

"Yes, it was", the witch agreed, reliving the taller woman afterwards by smiling at her, "but I have to admit it also was funny. Even though it can get tiring to have two action girls in the house."

"I'll make it up to you", Pat promised, causing Anya to perk up, sounding honestly interested when she looked at the two and spoke up. "Does that mean you're gonna have sex?"

"Anya!" Willow scolded in reply, the ex-demon shrugging apologetically and giving the witch a smile; once more, the redhead rolled her eyes, then let herself fall back into her girlfriend's embrace while said girlfriend just chuckled once more, the fact that as soon as the sun would set, they'd leave for to fight Amy for the last time, no matter how it would end, for the moment forgotten.


	18. Chapter 18

"Alright", Buffy whispered once they stood in front of the house where the last confrontation with Amy had happened, "in we go… We're all clear on the plan?"

"Go in, fight, kill", Spike summed it up for them, smirking at the redhead afterwards. "And make sure Willow can do her magic. You'll need help with that, pirate, or you'll do it on your own?"

"I'll do fine", Pat replied, not letting it show if his way of addressing her bothered her; he just gave her another smirk, then nodded, the demon making sure that she stayed close to Willow as they entered, Buffy and Spike taking the lead, the witch already starting to mumble the spell to herself while she walked along next to her lover.

Since now, they knew where to find Amy, it didn't take long for them to reach the room where the last battle had happened; it didn't surprise any of them that Amy had new guards around her, several demons and vampires again, not seeming all too shocked either at seeing them again, but smiling while she got up from her seat, her gaze focused on Buffy as she took a step closer to the group.

"I've been expecting you", she stated, her smile widening slightly, "it's quite kind of you to come here so I can kill you all."

"…her spells in vain", Willow finished the spell in response, ending it fully by clapping her hands once; the blink of an eye later, her knees gave in beneath her, Pat catching her at the last second and keeping her from falling while Amy cried out in frustration, quickly realizing what the witch had done.

"I'll kill you personally once I'm done with the Slayer!" she swore angrily, Buffy just smirking at her before she charged while the demons and vampires who had been guarding her focused on Spike and Pat immediately, following the order Amy had barked at them right after her gruesome promise towards Willow.

"You at least could let me put her down", Pat grumbled while she kicked one of the demons, hard enough to send him back, finding it hard to keep her balance with Willow still in her arms; from the corner of her eye, she saw a vampire approach, her gaze briefly focusing on the witch, her voice low as she mumbled "Sorry" to her, giving the redhead a second to wonder what she was apologizing for – before the demon swung around, using the momentum to slam Willow's feet into the vampire's head, sending him a few steps back as well.

"Sorry!" she apologized again when she saw the witch's eyes widen; then, she made herself tense up despite her exhaustion after casting the rather draining protection spell when Pat swung her around again, once more making her kick the vampire, determinedly setting her jaw afterwards and glaring at the advancing opponents, glad when Spike at last jumped in and kept them away from her long enough so she could put Willow down on the ground, telling her to stay right there and not to move, the witch nodding weakly in reply, slumping against the wall behind her while her loved one turned to face their opponents once more.

Giving her best to regain her energies, Willow watched how Pat and Spike battled their opponents together, fighting off the group of vampires and demons; from time to time, the witch would reach up and wipe off the blood which was trickling from her left nostril, without even noticing it fully though, all her attention focused on her loved one and the fight she was caught up in.

Then, her gaze wandered to where Buffy and Amy were trading blows, not too far away from the group of Amy's henchmonsters busy with the demon and the bleached blonde vampire; even though Willow's spell kept Amy from using magic to keep Buffy in place, the Slayer still was having a worthy opponent up against her, the other woman either dodging and ducking the blows or taking them, but giving them back just as quickly.

"Punch! Left!" she suddenly heard Spike call out, her attention snapping back to the vampire and her loved one, just in time to see how Pat dropped down on one knee, thus ducking the punch coming from her left – a punch she wouldn't have seen coming, Willow realized, suddenly grateful that Spike had warned her girlfriend in time. Cheering inwardly, she watched how her loved one grabbed the vampire who had tried to get her from her blind side, setting him on fire as her fists flared up; howling in pain, the vampire tried to get away from her, with no success though, the demon keeping her hold on him as she came to her feet, the flames spreading over the rest of her body, a malicious smirk appearing on her face – before she pulled the vampire into a deadly embrace, his howls increasing briefly, then ending abruptly when he turned into a cloud of dust.

"Nice", Spike complimented, "but if you'll cuddle them all to death, this fight will take quite long!"

"Not planning that", Pat grimly reassured him, blocking a punch and giving one back – before she surprised Willow by demoning out, a low growl coming from her as she did so, surprising Spike enough to make him take a few steps away from her, the witch simultaneously realizing that so far, the vampire hadn't seen the demonic form of her loved one.

He got over his surprise quickly though, focusing on the fight again, Pat doing the same; once more, Willow reached up to wipe blood from her nose, dismayed at how drained she felt after that spell, hoping that everything would go fine and that she wouldn't need to do any more magic, all at once not sure about what might happen if she'd try another spell.

* * *

"You know, I'm getting tired of this", Buffy stated rather calmly, not letting it show that the hits and kicks she had taken so far had hurt her; twirling her sword, she slashed at Amy again, annoyed when the other woman easily avoided the blade, a malicious little smirk on her face.

"Oh, don't worry", she then stated, sidestepping another slash and lashing out to punch the Slayer, seeming dismayed as well when Buffy dodged her attack just as easily, immediately afterwards delivering a kick which hit home and drove her a few steps back, "I'll end this sooner or later, and it'll end with your death."

"Once again, I cannot agree with your plan", Buffy shook her head, finally landing a hit with the sword, the sharp blade biting into the possessed woman's arm, satisfaction filling the Slayer when Amy let out a yelp, blood spurting out of the wound and running down her arm, soaking the sleeve of the blouse she was wearing.

"Those stains will never come out", Buffy observed, relieved to see that her opponent actually could bleed, since her kicks and punches so far hadn't achieved that, "but seeing how dirty that thing already is, I guess it won't matter. Jeez, didn't you think of changing since you became that priest's little buddy?"

"Still thinking you're witty, huh", Amy replied, smirking, moving her hand to the wound afterwards and running her fingers over it; she hissed in pain, but nothing else happened, something she clearly hadn't expected since her eyes went wide in genuine shock.

_No wonder Willow's so drained, _Buffy realized with a start, _her spell blocked _all_ of Amy's magic, not just the stuff which would have affected us! _

Remembering the warning about the spell not taking effect for too long, the Slayer quickly used Amy's obvious confusion and charged again, ramming her sword through the other woman's body; with horrible gurgling noises, Amy sank to her knees, her eyes still wide and filled with shock, her mind clearly unable to comprehend what was happening to her.

"Seems like this won't end with my death", Buffy snarled, jerking the sword back out; behind her, Willow forced herself to sit up as far as possible, using her last bits of energy to cast the vine spell, making sure that Amy would stay where she was as the Slayer lashed out with the sword. Just as it had been intended, the vines shot out of the ground and wrapped around Amy's ankles and calves, keeping her from getting up; with a low groan, Willow slumped back against the wall, blood now not just trickling from both nostrils, but almost pouring, running down her lips and chin, dripping on her blouse from there.

Dimly, she could hear how Pat called out her name, then the sound of the sword meeting Amy's neck; the large, black flowers blooming in front of her eyes kept her from seeing how Buffy decapitated their opponent though, and she just time to realize that those flowers meant she was losing consciousness before she did just that, slumping down into a lying position as the darkness spread and enfolded her, taking her away.

The moment Amy's head hit the ground, the demons and vampires still left – not that there were many of them, most of them either dusted or killed by both Pat and Spike – all stopped in mid-movement, blinking in confusion; then, they realized that they were in the middle of a battle with a rather bulky demon, covered in black and red fur, and a certain platinum blonde vampire, the fact that the Vampire Slayer herself was standing a few feet away not helping with lessening the impact of this realization.

As one, the group decided that it might be better to get out of there, and did just that, pushing the surprised Spike aside as they hurried to get out; while the vampire looked dismayed about the unexpected departure of his enemies, Pat simply ignored them, returning to her human form while she rushed to Willow's side and knelt down next to her, fear gripping her heart at the sight of the blood drying on the witch's lips and chin.

"Is she okay?" Buffy demanded to know as she came running to them as well, not even fully noticing how she dropped the sword; shrugging, Pat briefly looked at her, then focused on Willow again, her concern clearly showing through her voice when she replied. "Not sure… She overdid herself majorly this time. Is Amy dead?"

"Dead as one can be", Buffy reassured her, "her head decided to part with the rest of her body. I'm actually surprised it was so easy."

As if those words had been a cue, the ground beneath them started to shake, the walls cracking suspiciously; annoyed, Spike glared at the Slayer, crossing his arms over his chest, huffing at her.

"Yeah, way to go, luv", he then mocked, "that was just the bloody right thing to say."

"Shut up Spike", Buffy gave back distractedly, eying the walls and the ceiling nervously, the stones which were falling to the ground from there not helping to calm her down; then, her gaze flickered to where Amy's body laid, the head right beside it, the Slayer's eyes widening when she saw the red mist which started to rise from the other woman's open neck.

"We better get out of here", Buffy stated matter-of-factly after another moment of watching the creepy mist, "somehow, I don't think that stuff coming out of her neck will end up spelling out a friendly message to us."

"Uh-huh", Pat muttered her agreement, scooping the unconscious Willow up on her arms; after a moment, Spike surprised both the demon and the Slayer by moving up to her and demanding that she'd let him help, rolling his eyes at the look he received in reply.

"We ought to get out of here fast, you git", he then claimed, "and we'll be faster if you don't carry her alone!"

"Alright", Pat agreed after a moment, making Spike give her another annoyed look before they took Willow between them; together, they hurried to the stairs leading out of the cellar, Buffy right behind them, grabbing the vampire and steadying him when another tremble shook the house and he stumbled as he rushed up the stairs, nearly losing his balance.

Thanks to the Slayer's fast reaction, he stayed on his feet though, and they kept rushing towards the door leading outside and into safety; even though the building kept shaking, the walls emitting ominous cracking sounds on the ground floor as well now, they all made it outside without anyone else stumbling, stopping only once they had put a safe distance between the house and themselves.

"Place's going down", Spike stated the obvious as he watched the walls crumble at last, the roof coming down with a tremendous crash and sending up a cloud of dust; taking Willow in her arms again, Pat raised an eyebrow at him, sounding dry when she replied. "Wow, those enhanced vampire eyeballs really do their job, huh? I never would have been able to see that if you hadn't pointed it out."

"At least I have two eyeballs", Spike smugly retorted, making the demon growl at him; ignoring her, he turned to look at Buffy, sounding much nicer when he spoke on. "And thanks for me keeping me from falling on my face back there on the stairs, luv. Doubt our grumbling friend here would have liked it if I'd dropped her pet."

Deciding to ignore this, and Spike, Pat focused on Buffy and stated that they'd better get Willow home; nodding, the Slayer still took the time to thank the vampire for his help, then their ways parted as Buffy and Pat returned to the house while Spike went back to his crypt, all of them wondering if their troubles were over – or if that red mist they had seen rising from Amy's dead body meant even larger troubles were on their way.


	19. Chapter 19

The headache was the first thing she felt when she woke up, and it made her groan softly to herself; she hadn't been hung over often in her life so far, but the pain pounding through her head now felt like the worst hangover _ever_, and briefly, she wondered if they had defeated Amy and afterwards had gone to celebrate, and she had boozed up so much that she had forgotten all about it.

Then, the memories slowly came back to her, how she had cast the spell which hopefully had stopped Amy from working her mojo on Pat and from using the floor to bind them in place; how drained she had felt afterwards, much more than she should have, and how she still had done one more spell anyway, which had been the last tiny push to send her into unconsciousness.

"Willow?" a familiar voice now came from her side, accompanied by something pleasantly damp and cool, moving from her forehead over her cheeks; instead of a groan, it made her let out a sigh, then finally forced herself to open her eyes, despite her eyelids feeling as if they were made of cement or something equally heavy.

"There you are again", Pat's voice came once more, still accompanied by that pleasant cool feeling on her skin, "welcome back."

"What…" she croaked in reply, then fell quiet as talking only made the headache worse; to her relief, Pat didn't make her to turn her head so she could look at her, but bent over her instead, the witch immediately noticing how tired she was looking despite her own still rather present exhaustion and awful, pounding headache.

"You've been out like a light bulb for the last two days", the demon explained, keeping her voice low, to the great relief of the witch, "you've really overdone it this time. Shame on you for worrying me so. Again."

"Sorry", Willow whispered in reply, smiling weakly; the taller woman returned the smile, then pulled back her hand, letting the redhead see that the pleasant cool sensation on her face had come from a damp cloth her girlfriend had been dabbing at her face with, the cloth quickly replaced by the demon's hand as she started caressing her hair tenderly.

"Giles kept telling me you'd be fine, but I only believe it now that you're awake", Pat let her know, smiling calmingly at her; smiling back weakly, Willow groped for the demon's other hand, quickly finding it and taking a surprisingly firm hold of it.

"Did we win?" she demanded to know, her voice still down to a whisper; in response, Pat sighed – to the redhead's great dismay – then shrugged, her smile going a bit wry while she replied. "Kinda. Not sure. Giles is still trying to figure it out, but we'll fill you in later, once you feel stronger. Are you thirsty?"

"A bit", the witch mumbled in reply, her voice a bit stronger; nodding, as if she had expected that, Pat took the time to place a tender kiss on her forehead, then vanished into the adjoined bathroom, coming back with a glass of water half a minute later.

"There we go", she stated, sitting down on the edge of the bed again and carefully lifting the witch's head up from the pillow so she could drink, "take it easy though, don't gulp it down or you'll puke."

Figuring that her girlfriend knew what she was talking about, Willow took a few small sips, then pulled back as far as it was possible, making it clear to the black haired woman that she'd had enough; carefully, she lowered the witch's head back on the pillow, then put the still two thirds full glass on the nightstand, her voice tender and full of care when she asked her if she felt better.

"A bit", the redhead muttered, fighting to keep her eyes open, a bit scared at how weak she felt despite having slept for two days straight. "Would be even better if you'd cuddle with me", she made herself say, a huge yawn escaping her afterwards; smiling, Pat moved to lie next to her in reply, carefully taking her into her arms and holding her close, a content sigh escaping the witch while she rested her head on the taller woman's shoulder.

"You should get some sleep", the demon advised once they were both comfortable, making the redhead frown before she craned her neck so she could look at her, ignoring how tired she did feel when she voiced her thoughts. "Sleep? I just slept for two days, according to you."

"Well, according to Giles, it was more like a coma", Pat pointed out in reply, carefully moving one hand to caress her hair again, "so I figure you might need some proper rest now. Of the non-comatose kind."

"Makes sense", Willow had to admit, yawning heartily afterwards and making her loved one smile; tenderly, the demon kept caressing her hair until she had drifted off into sleep, then just held her, watching her as she slumbered, smiling slightly to herself as she once more realized how happy she was to have the redhead back by her side and how much harder her life would had been, had she been forced to go on living it without her.

* * *

An hour later, Willow was still slumbering deeply, undisturbed by the sound of the door opening; clearly giving her best not to make too much noise, Buffy poked her head into the room, smiling briefly at the sight of the redhead fast asleep in her girlfriend's arms, nearly walking on the tips of her toes afterwards as she snuck over to the bed, her voice down to a whisper when she asked Pat how the redhead was doing.

"Woke up briefly", the demon whispered back, making sure not to move too much so she wouldn't end up tearing Willow out of her sleep after all, "she seemed fine, talked to me normally and everything. She just was awfully tired."

"No surprise", Buffy whispered her response, "Giles said she really overdid it this time. We should let her sleep as long as she needs to and then, we can talk about everything."

"My thoughts exactly", the demon agreed, nodding when Buffy asked her if she'd stay here with Willow afterwards; smiling at her, the Slayer told her to keep an eye open for anything unusual, only to have her eyes go wide a second later as she realized that maybe, this hadn't been the best choice of words, the expression on her face making Pat smirk slightly.

"I'll do just that", she reassured the blonde, making Buffy clear her throat before she nodded; she gave the demon another apologetic glance, then left the room again, carefully closing the door behind herself before she made her way downstairs, where Giles was waiting, brooding over his books, one of them opened on the table in front of him, others stacked left and right, with small pieces of paper marking the pages he had deemed important during the hours he had spent leafing through them already. Upon hearing her enter, he looked up, then took off his glasses so he could rub his eyes; before Buffy had the chance to say anything, he asked how Willow was doing, the Slayer smiling at him while she sat down next to him.

"She's sleeping", she let him know as soon as she had made herself comfortable, "the good kind of sleep, Pat told me. She's been awake for a while and it seems as if she's still her normal self, or Pat would have said something."

"Good then", Giles sighed out in reply, putting his glasses back on after cleaning them and looking down on the book in front of him again, "that is one less concern on our minds then. Did you…?"

"No, I didn't tell her", Buffy immediately declined, making him give her a strict look, the blonde shrugging in response. "I didn't see why I should have", she then let him know, "Willow was normal, as I said, so there was no need to worry her. Or both of them."

"I guess you're right", Giles had to admit after a moment, looking up from his book again and at her, "Pat should know if something's off with Willow, so we can assume that she's safe…"

"I'm glad", the Slayer sighed out in reply, "I would have hated it to fight her again… Once was enough. Do you believe me now that I was sure about none of that red misty stuff entering any of us?"

"Yes, I do", Giles reassured her, his gaze once more moving back to the book, "and that is quite calming, it should make dealing with this a bit easier."

"Yup", Buffy agreed, surprising her Watcher moments later by picking up one of the books and leafing through it, "now we'll deal with it just fine and then, everything will be back to normal. As normal as it can be here in this lovely little town, with vampires and everything."

"Looking forward to it", Giles gave back, then focused fully on his book again, making it clear that for now, the talk was over; for a while, Buffy did the same with the volume she had chosen, then got fed up with it and put the book back on the table, making her way to the kitchen to get something to drink, the Watcher not even noticing that she had left anymore.

* * *

When Willow woke up again, she was briefly surprised at how rested she felt; then, she realized that it had gotten dark outside and thus, figured out how long she had slept, briefly surprised and a bit worried; the fact that some time during the hours she had slept, Pat had gotten out of the bed, made her feel a bit dismayed as well, until she rolled over and spotted the demon standing at the window, smoking a cigarette, clearly unaware of the fact that her girlfriend had woken up.

"Junkie", the witch mumbled, holding back a giggle when the black haired woman jumped slightly in response before she turned to face her, a slight smirk on her face, Willow briefly feeling bad about startling her as she realized that the reason for that was the fact that Pat had been standing with her left side facing her, and thus hadn't seen her waking up.

"Had to pass the time while you were sleeping", the taller woman now shrugged, Willow raising an eyebrow at her while she carefully sat up, glad when this didn't tire her out as much as she had feared, giving her best to sound serious when she replied. "So you smoked the whole time? How many cigarettes did you inhale?"

"I did not smoke the whole time", Pat protested, taking another drag from her cigarette afterwards, "I also read. And cuddled with you."

"But you didn't smoke _while_ cuddling with me, right?" Willow demanded to know, her second eyebrow joining the first one up in its high position. "I mean, I got used to your smoking by now, I really don't mind it anymore, well not much, but smoking in bed is dangerous, you could set the bed on fire. Not that you would mind, being immune to fire and everything, but I would, so…"

"I didn't smoke in the bed", Pat reassured her, chuckling, once more fascinated by how cute Willow was when she started to babble like that.

"Good", the witch gave back, clearly relieved; smiling, the demon took one last drag from her cigarette, then threw it out of the window and moved over to the bed, sitting down next to her loved one and pulling her into a loving embrace, the redhead immediately snuggling up to her, a small, content sigh escaping her once she had made herself comfortable.

"This is nice", she then mumbled, smiling slightly when the taller woman's hands came to a tender rest on her stomach, even moving beneath her shirt after a second so the contact was made from skin to skin, "can't we stay like this forever…?"

"That'd be nice", the demon agreed, "but I'm afraid it's impossible. There's the issue of eating and, well, going to the bathroom, not to mention personal hygiene…"

"I could take care of that with magic", Willow giggled in reply, making her girlfriend chuckle as well before she shook her head, still sounding amused when she spoke up again. "Better not, I doubt that would be healthy."

"You're right", the redhead sighed out in reply, then fell silent, for a while just lying there and enjoying it to be so close to her loved one – until the audible growling of her stomach broke the silence, the noise making her blush while Pat snorted behind her, the sounds of held-back laughter only making her blush deepen.

"Guess we better get you some food", the black haired woman stated as soon as she was sure she wouldn't start laughing at her girlfriend, making Willow nod, her cheeks still showing a healthy red tone; smirking at the cute sight, the demon disentangled herself from the embrace, then insisted on helping her lover up from the bed, keeping an arm around her waist as she led her over to the door, then downstairs and into the kitchen, where Buffy and Dawn sat, eating pizza from a large cardboard box on the kitchen table. At the sight of the food, Willow's stomach rumbled again, loud enough to let the Slayer and her sister hear; they both stared at her for a moment, causing her barely faded blush to reappear with a vengeance.

"Good we ordered a large one", Buffy commented after another moment of looking at her best friend in surprise; opposite of her, Dawn nodded, then placed several of the pizza slices on the two plates they had readied for both Willow and Pat, handing them to the couple afterwards while they sat down at the table as well.

"Pizza for breakfast", the redhead commented after taking the first hungry bite, "good my mother can't see me now, or she'd have a fit."

"Breakfast?" Buffy demanded to know in reply, raising an eyebrow at the witch, "it's eight in the evening."

"But I just woke up from a long sleep", Willow shrugged in reply, taking another large bite of her pizza afterwards, taking the time to swallow and chew before she continued. "So, it's breakfast for me."

"Makes sense", Buffy had to admit, the redhead giving her a toothy smile as an answer before she focused on the pizza fully, devouring it hungrily, the others eating much slower as they were too busy watching her wolf the food down, all three of them with amused smiles on their faces.

"That was good", the redhead sighed out five minutes later, the slices Dawn had heaped on her plate gone; chuckling, the demon next to her nodded, giving her a mischievous look afterwards, her next words making the witch huff slightly. "I never would have guessed, seeing how you munched that down. I'm surprised you didn't choke, did you even chew?"

"In fact, I did", Willow informed her, crossing her arms over her chest and giving her a mock dismayed look, "and just for your information, that's a natural side effect of doing such magic. You should know, Miss I-need-to-eat-now-because-I-demoned-out."

"Aww", Pat cooed in reply, dropping her own pizza slice on her plate so she could pat the witch's upper leg, "don't be cross with me, love, you know I was just teasing…"

"I know", the witch reassured her in reply, smiling at her; for a moment, the two just went on smiling at each other, then both leaned in to share a tender kiss, Buffy and Dawn watching with small smiles on their faces, all of them enjoying the peaceful and happy atmosphere, successfully ignoring for now that there still was a threat hanging over their heads.


	20. Chapter 20

"Giles will come by tomorrow", Buffy let the others know once the pizza had been devoured and they all had made themselves comfortable in the living room – with the exception of Pat, the demon once more standing at the window to have her after-dinner-cigarette, "he has some ideas about what that nasty red mist was we saw rising from Amy's body and how to get rid of it, in case it's still around."

"Nasty red mist?" Willow repeated, sounding clueless and making the rest realize that so far, they hadn't told her what they had seen after Buffy had cut Amy's head off; quickly, the Slayer filled her best friend in, the witch frowning as soon as she was done, sounding worried when she spoke up again. "Well, I guess I know what that mist was, or is… You needed Giles to figure that out? Are you serious?"

"It's the Devil", Dawn shrugged, not sounding all too perturbed, to the witch's surprise; still, she nodded, then frowned again at what Buffy said next. "Actually, Giles was a bit worried that he… or it, whatever, might have possessed you, since your blood was used by the priest and everything. He's sure now though that you're still your normal, loveable self, so no worries."

"Good to know", Willow mumbled, not sure if she should be offended by this or not; at the window, Pat raised an eyebrow, making the rest look at her when she spoke up, sounding slightly annoyed. "And you didn't tell me this why, Buffy?"

"I didn't want to worry you", Buffy immediately gave back, smiling toothily at her afterwards, glad when the demon's annoyance visibly faded at her next words. "You seemed so concerned already, I didn't want to make that even worse. And in case Willow had woken up all evil and devilish, well, you would have been able to defend yourself."

"Technically", the black haired woman mumbled in reply, then finished her cigarette and threw it out the window; for a moment, Buffy was tempted to ask her what she meant, then shrugged it off and focused on her best friend again, sounding apologetic when she asked the witch not to be mad at Giles and that she shouldn't take it personal.

"I don't", Willow reassured her in reply, "I understand. I'm glad you told me."

Clearly relieved, Buffy gave her another smile, then moved a bit on the couch so Pat could sit next to Willow, something the taller woman gladly did; the second she had sat down, she put one arm around the redhead's shoulders, immediately making her smile while she snuggled closer to her, ignoring the brief flash of pain this brought up in her wounded shoulder.

"How will we know if that stuff is still around?" she asked once she had made herself comfortable, briefly smiling at her loved one when Pat started to caress her upper arm and shoulder tenderly; already before she had fallen into the chasm with Amy, the demon had been keen on touching her, but ever since they had been reunited, this only had increased, the taller woman now practically unable to keep her hands off of her – not that she minded much, though.

"Giles promised to figure something out", Buffy gave back, shrugging, clearly not all too troubled by her lack of knowledge about the whole topic. "He'll fill us in on what he found tomorrow. Until then, I suggest we just relax and take it easy, who knows what he'll have come up with and how exhausting it might be."

"Sounds like a plan", Pat agreed, smirking; both Dawn and Willow nodded as well, then the teen suggested watching a movie together, smiling happily when the rest agreed; they quickly decided which piece of their collection to watch, Buffy taking the time to get popcorn and chips from the kitchen before they all made themselves comfortable in front of the TV, their worries about the nasty red mist and how hard it might be to get rid of it soon pushed to the far back of their minds.

* * *

Once the movie was over, they all retreated to their bedrooms, taking Buffy's advice about getting proper rest before Giles would come over in the next morning; while Pat made her way to the bedroom window for her goodnight cigarette, as she called it, Willow already changed into her pyjama, grimacing to herself at the pain this caused to well up in her arm again, the demon watching her with concern clearly showing on her face.

"You want another painkiller before you go to sleep?" she then asked, taking another long drag of her cigarette afterwards; shaking her head, Willow made herself comfortable in the large bed, pulling the covers all the way up to her chin, the cute sight making Pat smile slightly.

"I'll be fine", the redhead reassured her girlfriend as soon as she had propped the pillow up a bit so she could half sit, half lie, and thus look at the taller woman without craning her neck too much, "especially once you're here to cuddle with me."

"Seeing how often you said that since we got you out of there, I'm beginning to wonder if I have some hidden pain-killing demon powers or something", the demon smirked in reply, making Willow giggle before she shook her head, smiling up at the still standing black haired woman as she replied. "Sorry to disappoint you, but those powers are exclusively related to me. They're Willow-healing-powers, they won't work on anyone else."

"I'm perfectly fine with that", Pat shrugged in reply, finishing her cigarette before she closed the window, then moved over to the bed and changed as well, lying down next to the witch and forcing her to move out from beneath the blanket again so she could snuggle up to her loved one, something Willow didn't mind much though.

"I wonder what Giles will tell us tomorrow", she mumbled as soon as she laid in her girlfriend's tender embrace, "and if he really figured something out."

"He usually does, doesn't he?" Pat shrugged, Willow giving her a brief scolding glance as the motion made her bounce up and down on her shoulder rather uncomfortably, then shrugged as well, snuggling closer to the taller woman again, a yawn escaping her before she replied. "Yes, he does, but I'm still curious what he figured out. Aren't you?"

"Kinda", the demon agreed after a moment, "but on the other hand, I guess whatever it is, I won't be much use when it comes to doing that, so…"

"What?" Willow gave back, sounding stunned while she propped herself up on one elbow so she could look properly at her loved one, the stunned expression on her face forcing Pat to hold back a chuckle, "why would you say that?"

"Well", the taller woman shrugged again, "since it's a mist, physical strength and fighting won't do much good against it, right? So I figure that Giles will come up with some magical solution, and that'll involve you and your witchcraft. No need for demonic butt-kicking there."

"Nope", the witch had to agree after thinking about this for a moment, "but, well, there'll be a need for demonic cheering from the sidelines. From you, for me, I mean. Or, better said, girlfriendly cheering from the sidelines, you'll be cuter that way."

"I can do that", Pat reassured her, stealing a brief kiss from her – before a mischief glint entered her good eye, her voice down to a low, seductive murmur when she spoke on. "So, Buffy said we should get some rest… Think you need a little help with getting tired?"

"Oh, I don't know", the redhead gave back, smirking as well – before she remembered her still rather painful wound and grimaced, sounding sorrowful when she continued. "I'd love to have a little help with that, but I doubt I'll be able to move much, with my arm still hurt and everything…"

"Who said anything about you having to move", the demon winked in reply, making her lie down flat on her back afterwards with gentle pressure, "just lie back, relax, and let me do all the work…"

"How could I say no to that", Willow sighed out in reply, making the taller woman smile at her once more – before she bent down to kiss her, tenderly and innocently first, the kiss soon deepening though, muffling the soft moans Willow started to let out not too long afterwards, keeping anyone else in the house from hearing them in their moment of intimacy.

* * *

The relaxed and happy atmosphere from the evening and night before was forgotten shortly after Giles had arrived in the next morning and had told them what he had found out; while Buffy, Dawn and Willow were looking quite worried, Pat appeared as if she might explode any second, standing in front of the Watcher and glaring at him, the elder man holding her gaze bravely, not letting his slight unease about her angered reaction show.

"You can't be serious!" the demon now snapped, forcing Giles to use almost all of his willpower so he wouldn't flinch, "what kind of a fucking idiotic plan is this? I will not let her do this!"

"I told you, there is nothing else we can do", the Watcher once more tried to reason with her, both Buffy and Willow holding back a remark about how this would be useless as long as she was as angry as that, both of them briefly relieved about the fact that at least so far, her clothes hadn't started to smoke.

"And there is no need to use such language", Giles added primly, making the black haired woman snort in reply – before she took another step closer to him, impressing him with how well she still could glare with just one eye.

"I'll use whatever kind of language I fucking want to", she snarled, clenching her fists, the smoke both Buffy and Willow had been fearing starting to curl from her fingers moments later, prompting the witch to get up from her seat and grab her arm before she could try to do any serious damage to the Brit.

"Calm down", she mumbled, hoping that she'd be able to soothe her; in response, the taller woman glared at her, still sounding angry when she replied, the smoke quickly stopping to rise from her hands though, the mere presence of the redhead helping to lessen her anger.

"Giles is right, after what he told us, we all know there's no other way", Willow added, her girlfriend shaking her head in reply, not sounding angry anymore, but slightly desperate when she replied. "You can't be serious about this, come on, you know how dangerous this will be!"

"I know", Willow gave back sincerely, from the corner of her eye noticing how Buffy got up from her seat and grabbed both Dawn and Giles, dragging them out of the living room so the couple would have some privacy to talk this through. "But it'd be even worse if we don't do it", she went on, focusing on her loved one again, "and not just for us. For everything… everyone."

"I don't care", the demon gave back, her voice hoarse with emotion, momentarily shocking Willow since so far, the witch had been convinced that she was aware of what they were fighting for, "I don't… It's too dangerous! What if something goes wrong, or what if you need more strength than you think right now? After overdoing yourself like that the last time we went up against Amy, you were in a coma for two days afterwards!"

"I know", Willow reassured her, moving even closer to her and placing both hands on her arms, "but as Giles said, there's nothing else we can do. And we can't let this thing run free, you know that…"

"There must be another way", Pat insisted in reply, ignoring the fact that Giles had made it quite clear that there wasn't. "Willow, you can't endanger yourself like this again, what if something happens to you? I couldn't take it to lose you, not again…"

"It'll be alright", the witch gave back, moving to embrace the taller woman, glad when the hug was returned immediately. "Especially if we do it the way Giles suggested, with Anya and him helping… Everything will be fine."

"I wish I could help, too", the demon mumbled in reply, to Willow's relief slowly accepting the plan the Watcher had come up with; smiling up at her, the redhead moved one hand to caress her hair, glad that now, Pat at least was willing to talk about their plan.

"You will help", she promised, making sure to keep a soothing tone in her voice, "remember what Giles said about the demons? Buffy and you will need to take care of that, keep them away from us until the chant is done."

"If they even appear", the demon pointed out in reply, "Giles wasn't sure about that, remember?"

"Of course", the redhead gave back, "but Scoobie experience taught me to always expect the worst, so they probably will. It's vital that they don't interrupt our circle, or our chant."

"I still don't like the idea", the black haired woman grumbled in reply, "but, well, it's obvious you want to pull it through, so let's do it."

"Everything will be alright", Willow told her once more in reply, glad when after a moment, Pat nodded; then, she pulled the redhead closer to herself and just held her, giving her best to fight back her worries about their risky plan and telling herself that her loved one was right and that everything would be just fine.


	21. Chapter 21

Author's Note: *drumroll* And here we go with the final chapter of Darkness Fall II. I hope you all enjoyed it and had as much as fun as I had while writing it :) Special thanks goes to **ColeOctober** for her reviews - people, if you enjoy fics with OCs, you should go and check hers out, it's an awesome story. :)

* * *

"So, let us go through this once more", Giles stated once they all had assembled in the living room again, eying Pat briefly before he continued, taking off his glasses and fiddling with them as he spoke. "We'll form the circle close to the chasm and start up the chant, which should at first draw the… spirit, or whatever it is, to us and then send it back into the chasm, where we'll seal it by completing the chant. Seeing that the spirit is most likely the devil, we'll have to be aware of the fact that it might summon demons to protect itself from being sealed away again, so we'll rely on you, Buffy and Pat, to keep them away from us. It is most important that our circle is not broken and that we can finish the chant."

"We'll handle it", Buffy confidently gave back, her gaze moving to the demon afterwards. "Right?"

"Right", Pat mumbled her agreement, still not sounding all too convinced or happy about the plan, but at least having accepted by now that Giles had been right and that there was no other way to end this – and letting the devilish spirit run free was not one of their options.

"Right", Giles echoed, putting his glasses back on before he rose from his seat, "let's head for the Magic Box for the supplies then and move on to the church. We should move fast."

The rest just nodded in reply, all of them getting up as well; moving closer to the witch, Pat put an arm around her as they walked out of the house together, giving her a worried glance; eager to reassure her once more, the redhead smiled up at her in reply, placing her hand on the one which was resting on her shoulder and giving it a calming squeeze, glad when after a moment, her girlfriend returned the smile, then looked at the road ahead of them again, the couple walking along in silence until they reached the Magic Box.

"Now I have to admit, I am getting nervous", Willow said as they reached the ruins of the church, the redhead briefly grimacing at the sight of the chasm which nearly had taken her life; next to her, Pat gave her a concerned look while Anya just shrugged, then looked at the witch pointedly, making everyone roll her eyes with what she said in reply. "Just don't be so nervous that you'll mess up the spell. Those ingredients are expensive, it'd be a shame to waste them."

"Do you think about anything else but money?" Pat demanded to know in response, eying the ex-demon with a raised eyebrow; Anya gave her an innocent smile before she let her know that she did, in fact, think about other things, namely about sex and orgasms, making the demon shake her head to herself.

"Talk about a two-track-mind", she then muttered, Anya just giving her another smile – before her face grew serious as she looked at Giles, to the surprise of everyone sounding mildly concerned when she spoke up. "But, in all seriousness now, should we do something to calm Willow down? Not just because of the expensive ingredients, but it could be dangerous for us if she messes up, right?"

"I won't mess up", the witch threw in before the Watcher had a chance to say anything, giving the ex-demon a sour look, prompting her to give her yet another innocent smile, "I'm always nervous before doing such big spells, but I can handle it just fine once we started!"

"Good then", Anya shrugged, Willow giving her another annoyed look before she focused on Giles again as the Watcher spoke up, sounding sincere. "There is no time for your bickering now, you two. We should get started."

"Giles is right", Buffy agreed, "you better get started… Pat, are you ready?"

"As ready as one can be", the demon gave back, raising the axe she had brought along; with a rather malicious smile, Buffy held her sword up as well, then moved with the taller woman to stand in front of the circle Giles, Willow and Anya were forming close to the chasm.

"We'll go back to back if we have to", the Slayer informed the demon, making sure to keep her voice low so she wouldn't disrupt the concentration of the three behind them, "but only if there are too much of them, alright? We need to keep an eye on our magic pals there… and I really need to stop saying that."

With those words, she shook her head to herself, then gave the demon an apologetic glance; smirking, Pat shrugged it off and told her not to worry before she looked at the area surrounding the church, keeping her voice down as well when she spoke up. "Well, we won't be able to miss them, with that open area around us. Think there will be many of them?"

"I'm not even sure there will be any at all", Buffy shrugged, bringing the sword up to eye-level once more and studying the sharp edge, "after all, they all took off when I cut off Amy's head, remember? Maybe they won't pay attention to a creepy red mist calling out to them."

"Well, just in case they do, we'll give them a proper welcome", Pat shrugged in reply, making Buffy nod; the two exchanged a brief smile, then the chanting started behind them and they fell silent, knowing that the crucial part of their plan had just begun.

* * *

It didn't take long until the spell started to take effect, Willow, Anya and Giles feeling how their energies were drained as their chant started to work, their grip on each other's hands tightening as they went on chanting, sweat forming on their brows and slowly trickling down their cheeks. In front of them, Buffy and Pat gripped their weapons tighter as they saw the familiar red mist appear on the horizon; somehow, it appeared to be struggling, as much as mist was capable of doing so, but no matter how hard it seemed to try, it clearly couldn't withstand the power of the spell, drawing it closer to the circle and the chasm it had come from.

_Insolent mortals! _they all heard a deep, booming voice right in their heads, with surprising volume, considering the fact that it was coming from red mist. _How dare you to lure me here with your petty magic! _

"Seems as if it isn't that petty if it works", Pat muttered to herself, making Buffy smirk and nod next to her – before the Slayer gripped her sword tighter as her gaze fell on the shapes of several demons appearing on the horizon and approaching the ruins of the church with high speed.

"There we go", she mumbled, making the demon grip her axe tighter as well, the two exchanging another short glance before they focused on the approaching demons again, the creatures breaking into a run as they saw the two armed women waiting for them.

"Don't let them get past us!" Buffy reminded the demon beside her, earning a brief nod – before Pat took a step forward and swung her axe at the demon closest to her, grumbling when he ducked the attack easily, then tried to get past her, obviously eager to disrupt the circle and stop the spell.

"Oh no, you don't", the taller woman snarled, the axe coming down again and digging into one of the demon's scaly legs; with a howl, he fell, and she quickly finished him off, then spun around as she heard a snarl too close for comfort, blocking the punch aimed at her with the shaft of her axe in the last possible moment. Next to her, Buffy buried her sword in the gut of another demon, not wasting time with pulling it out again, but leaving it there as the demon fell and grabbing another one to keep him from rushing at the circle; using the momentum of the speed he had had before she had grasped him, she threw him over her shoulder, a powerful kick following the moment he had hit the ground.

"Buffy!" the Slayer heard Pat call out, spinning around and catching the axe the black haired woman threw her, briefly wondering if the demon would be fine fighting without a weapon; then, the other woman's hands flamed up with a rather impressive _whoomp!_, and Buffy knew that it wouldn't be a problem.

Quickly, she took a step away from Pat as the flames spread from her hands up her arms and from there over the rest of her body; as always at that sight, the Slayer briefly wondered why her clothes didn't burn, then shrugged it off and focused on the fight again, using the axe to take out the demon she had thrown to the floor, leaving them with three more to defeat. She heard a throaty growl coming from Pat as the black haired woman grabbed one of those three, punching him fiercely and making him howl when her flames burned his face; unimpressed by his sounds of pain, she let him slump to his knees, then grasped his head and gave it a sharp twist, the sound of his neck breaking echoing through the quiet morning and ending his cries of pain.

"One down, two to go", she commented, smirking; said two clearly had no interest in fighting Buffy and her though, obviously eager to get passed them so they could stop the spell, the creepy red mist by now hanging over the chasm, where it seemed to struggle against being forced down there. Eager to let the three complete the spell, both Buffy and Pat each grabbed one of the demons left, the one the black haired woman had grasped shouting curses at her when her flaming hands burned him; giving him a scolding look, she pulled him so close that for a moment, Buffy thought she wanted to kiss him – before she headbutted him, sending him to the ground, a smirk curling her lips as she spoke up. "That's no way to speak to a lady, you know. Fucker."

A well-aimed kick kept him from getting up again, then the body of the second demon slammed into him and sent him flat on his back once more; Buffy and Pat exchanged a brief glance, then the Slayer rose her axe, ready to take at least one, maybe even both of them, out – when the ground beneath them started to tremble with unexpected and surprising force, making them both lose their footing, Pat ending up on her behinds with a low "Ooff" while Buffy regained her balance again in the last second.

"How embarrassing", the demon muttered to herself as she came to her feet again; she briefly watched how Buffy brought the axe down, then the ground shook once more and forced her to focus on staying on her feet this time, the black haired woman not wanting to end up on her butt once more.

The deep, booming voice they had heard when the spell's effects had kicked in came up in their minds again, howling in anguish as the red mist was forced into the chasm with agonizing slowness; alarmed, Pat still had time to notice that Giles, Anya and Willow all were bleeding from the nostrils, then another, both angered and agonized shout came from the mist's spirit – before it vanished in the chasm, the chanting of the three stopping abruptly and their eyes flying open, Pat's gaze meeting Willow's for the blink of an eye before something which felt like a huge invisible fist hit her and sent her flying, the startled cry she heard from Buffy making her realize that the same had happened to the Slayer, the demon just having a second to wonder what was happening before she hit the ground and the world around her went dark.

* * *

It only took a few minutes for the demon to come back around, feeling a bit woozy as she sat up and shook her head to clear it, briefly checking herself for any broken bones before she came to her feet again, grimacing at the slight dizziness the movement caused to well up; then, her gaze fell on where Giles, Anya and Willow had been sitting during their chant, all three of them flat on their backs now, a considerable distance from where they had been doing the spell, making it clear that the shockwave which had knocked her out had affected them as well.

"Oh crap", the demon said to no one in particular while she hurried over to where her girlfriend laid, ignoring the sound of Buffy coming to her feet behind her, the Slayer muttering something about magic and hangovers without even drinking to herself; focused fully on Willow, Pat knelt down next to her motionless form, alarmed at first when she noticed the blood drying on her lips, chin and cheeks, then relieved when she noticed that the redhead was breathing with slow, calm breaths, making it clear to her that she had been knocked out as well, but not killed.

"No more magic for you in the next few days", she told the unconscious witch, ignoring the fact that Willow couldn't hear her; not sure what else to do, she then took her hand and held it tenderly, looking up when Buffy approached her moments later.

"Are they alright?" she demanded to know, sounding as alarmed as Pat had felt; shrugging, the demon ran her free hand through her hair, then looked up at the Slayer, her voice showing her concern as well when she replied. "I guess so… That shockwave thingy they created when the spell was done knocked them out, just like it did you and me."

"Let's hope they wake up quickly, then", Buffy mumbled, then moved to check Giles and Anya, glad when they showed the same vital signs Willow was displaying; as soon as she could be sure that they were fine, she moved to the chasm and carefully peered over the edge, smiling slightly to herself when all she saw was darkness, no creepy red mists rising out of it.

"Seems as if the spell worked", she stated, turning to look at Pat again and frowning when she saw the demon lighting up a cigarette; shaking her head, she made her way back to the demon and sat down next to her, raising an eyebrow at her.

"Are you sure this is the proper time for smoking?" she then wanted to know, making Pat shrug in reply, the demon making herself comfortable on the ground next to Willow afterwards and taking another drag of the cigarette before she replied. "Why not? All we can do now is sit around and wait until they wake up, right? Might as well pass the time."

"Too bad we didn't bring cards", Buffy dryly commented, sitting down next to the demon; Pat gave her a smirk, then shrugged again, taking another drag of her cigarette afterwards.

"Let's hope they won't be downed for two days, like Willow was after that spell in Amy's lair", she then muttered, making the Slayer nod; as if this had been a cue, Giles started moving, letting out a low groan before his eyes fluttered open, the first thing he saw being Buffy's worried face.

"Are you okay?" she demanded to know, making him nod after a moment; while he carefully sat up with Buffy's aid, Willow started to come around again as well, opening her eyes after a few soft moans, to Pat's worry appearing a bit woozy, but at least recognizing her instantly and even smiling weakly.

"Welcome back", the demon stated, helping her to sit up just like Buffy had helped Giles, "how're you feeling?"

"Dizzy", the witch grimaced in reply, one hand coming up to rub at her forehead, slight disgust showing on her face when she felt the blood which had dried on her skin. "Did it work?" she then demanded to know, deciding to worry about her hygiene later, looking at her loved one again; smiling, Pat nodded, then gestured at the dark chasm, automatically making Willow look at it, as well.

"It's… dark", she stated the obvious, making the demon next to her chuckle; nodding, Pat carefully put an arm around her, both of them looking at Anya when the ex-demon started to wake up as well.

"Seems like we'll all be fine", the witch stated, sounding so relieved that it made the black haired woman raise an eyebrow at her, since she still clearly remembered how Willow had tried to convince her of just that; then, she shrugged it off and nodded, smiling at the redhead before she kissed her tenderly, Willow responding happily before she let out a small sigh and snuggled up to the taller woman, closing her eyes as she waited for her energies to recharge enough so she could go back home, feeling as if a tremendous weight had been removed from her heart when she fully realized that they had been successful and that the danger the fallen priest had brought into this world had been averted.

* * *

"Doing magic was easier when I was a demon", Anya let the rest know as they slowly walked back to the house, giving Pat an incredulous look afterwards, the demon raising an eyebrow in response, clearly having no idea what the reason for that was. "Why didn't you do it? I have a bad headache now and there is blood on my face!"

"Because I had to fight those demons", Pat reminded her in reply, holding up her axe to underline her words. "Next time, we can trade places", she added, smirking, her smirk widening when immediately, Anya shook her head.

"Fighting was easier too when I was a demon", she then informed the taller woman, "so no, I don't want to trade places. Actually, I hope something like this never happens again."

"So do I", Giles agreed, grimacing to himself as he shared that headache with Anya, "that was a highly dangerous spell we did, and I don't like the thought of having to do this again anytime soon."

"At least you admit now it was highly dangerous", Pat grumbled at him, making him clear his throat; next to her, Willow squeezed her hand reassuringly, making her look at her again, her anger vanishing into nothingness the moment her gaze met the one of the witch.

"Everything worked out just fine", the redhead still found it necessary to tell her, "the devil's back where it belongs, Amy's dead and so is the priest… Everything is just fine."

"And dandy", Pat smirked, making the witch giggle before she nodded; they stopped to share a brief kiss, making the rest smile at the cute sight before they all continued walking back home, eager to get some rest now that the world had been saved once more.

* * *

"Now that we got rid of that nasty spirit, I can start looking up spells about your eye", Willow let her loved one know once they were back home and had made themselves comfortable in the living room, Buffy and Anya having retreated to the kitchen to make lunch while Giles was busying himself with packing up his books, stopping though to raise an eyebrow at the words of the redhead, momentarily glad when Pat immediately shook her head.

"First, you'll recharge your magic batteries, or whatever it is called", the demon strictly told her girlfriend, making the Watcher smile briefly before he focused on his books again, still listening to the couple's conversation with one ear though so he could jump in, should it be necessary.

"But…" the witch started to protest, only to have the demon make her fall quiet again by placing her index finger on her lips, another strict look accompanying the gesture.

"No buts", she then said, unimpressed by the puppy dog look Willow gave her in reply, "there's no need to hurry about that. I'm getting used to it anyway."

"…fine", the redhead sighed after another second, realizing that discussion would do no good about this; satisfied, Pat smiled at her and nodded, then kissed her briefly, keeping the kiss innocent though and thus keeping Dawn from seeing them in full smooching mode once more as the teenager came down the stairs, accompanied by Xander, both of them looking relieved and happy about the fact that all of them had returned in one piece.

"So the evil mist of doom has been sent back to where it came from, I take it?" the young man demanded to know once he had made himself comfortable next to Willow, making the witch nod in reply; the two smiled at each other, then both focused on Dawn when the teenager demanded a detailed report of how it had gone.

"You better do that", Willow turned to her girlfriend, "I didn't really notice much, being busy with the spell and everything."

"Huh", Pat shrugged in reply, "I didn't pay too much attention either, I was busy fighting off demons. Sorry, Dawn."

Grumbling, the teen gave them both annoyed looks in reply, crossing her arms over her chest, sounding just as annoyed as the expression on her face was when she responded. "You just don't wanna tell me because it was bloody and gruesome and Buffy doesn't want me to hear about that stuff. Right?"

"Wrong", Willow reassured her, giving her a hopefully calming smile, "I really don't remember much. If you wanna hear bloody and gruesome things, Giles, Anya and me all got massive nosebleeds from the spell!"

"And I burned a demon to a crisp and Buffy killed one by gutting him with her sword. Oh, and I think she chopped a head off, too", Pat helpfully added, making Giles throw her an incredulous look over the rim of his glasses, which she skilfully ignored though.

"Cool", Dawn beamed, her need to hear about the bloody deeds of her sister and friends obviously satisfied, since she left for the kitchen, probably to ask Buffy if she really had beheaded a demon; smirking to herself, Pat shook her head, then focused on her girlfriend again, ignoring the fact that Giles and Xander still were in the room as she moved one hand to caress her hair tenderly, the gentle touch making Willow smile heartily as well.

"You know", the demon smirked after a moment of just looking at her, and once more contemplating how lucky she was to have her back, "after we ate, I'd like to have some… private time with you."

"Gladly", the redhead immediately agreed, to the obvious happiness of her girlfriend; while Giles rolled his eyes once more at their antics, they shared another loving kiss, content to just be with each other and glad that once more, the world had been saved of a danger it had been oblivious to, both of them hoping that now, they'd be able to return to what passed for normality in Sunnydale at least for a while.

End.


End file.
